Rick Reilly column on Billy D

[Ahab]

"I used to come back from a tough road loss, 1 or 2 in the morning, and go straight to the office and pull an all-nighter trying to figure out what went wrong. Or I'd close the door of my office at home and watch tape. My highs were too high and my lows were too low."

Now, like John Wooden, he stays as even as Alligator Alley.

"You talk about a guy who's won two national championships," says Buzz Williams of Marquette, "and yet he still looks you in the eye and says, 'How are you doing?' There are a lot of guys in our business that don't do that. Sometimes they think they win because of who they are."

Once Donovan realized that whether he won or lost wouldn't tremble the cosmos, he started teaching it to others -- such as his former neighbor across the street, a guy named Urban Meyer. Imagine that: One block, four national championship trophies. Meyer nearly cracked under the pressure of what he'd built, retiring and unretiring, his boot tangled in the stirrup of a beast he couldn't get off.

"We talked a lot," Donovan says of Meyer, now the head football coach at Ohio State. "You start to realize that the trophy brings you nothing of real value. Nothing, really. The joy in coaching is helping a group of kids accomplish something they couldn't accomplish by themselves."

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/9...onovan-lessons

[CAGator93]

thanks for posting

[vbmatt]

Great share, thanks!

[Jaggator]

http://www.gatorcountry.com/swampgas...d.php?t=258546

[gatorbogey]

The joy in coaching is helping a group of kids accomplish something they couldn't accomplish by themselves."

i like that. like to hear BD is at peace and finding joy. deserves it, you know.
something for all of us - so we don't get too bent out of shape. i know the joy of following the gators - whatever the sport - is to watch them accomplish something. you know. compete. garner a title or two. win the game. whatever.

[G8R92]

It's a shame that more of our fans can't find the same perspective.

[GatorAvatar]

This offseason, Erik Spoelstra, head coach of the defending NBA champion Miami Heat, enrolled at the University of Donovan. Spoelstra spent seven hours grilling Donovan on how to repeat.

Seven hours? Seriously?

"I told Erik, 'You've got to enjoy the journey. You're not in the NBA Finals. You're at ground zero.

"After you win [a championship], all of a sudden it's not about whether you won, it's 'Did you win by enough points?' You've got to start all over, enjoy the process, the struggles, the joys, the pain."

[gtr2x]

Originally Posted by GatorAvatar

This offseason, Erik Spoelstra, head coach of the defending NBA champion Miami Heat, enrolled at the University of Donovan. Spoelstra spent seven hours grilling Donovan on how to repeat.

Seven hours? Seriously?

"I told Erik, 'You've got to enjoy the journey. You're not in the NBA Finals. You're at ground zero.

"After you win [a championship], all of a sudden it's not about whether you won, it's 'Did you win by enough points?' You've got to start all over, enjoy the process, the struggles, the joys, the pain."

Maybe that's why Spoelstra has a 24 yr old ex heat dancer gf. Enjoying the ride.

[NorthCaptivaGator]

Originally Posted by gtr2x

Maybe that's why Spoelstra has a 24 yr old ex heat dancer gf. Enjoying the ride.

This guy gets handed a team with LeBron James and Dwayne Wade on it and he has the balls to go out and date a 24-year-old Miami Heat dancer!, this guy is mocking God

[Go2gtr]

Reilly did a nice piece on Bo Ryan when he was writing for SI, very complimentary. My problem was he had to denigrate Billy in the same column for no good reason. He used Billy as the example of the bad coach. Reilly didn't know shit about Billy. I have not forgiven him for that. Just praise Ryan, which he deserved, but don't tear down our coach, which he did not deserve.