The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players - Softcover

Riley, Pat

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425141756 ISBN 13: 9780425141755

Publisher: Berkley, 1994

Synopsis

The New York Times bestselling book from one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time.
 
He’s one of America’s greatest coaches, known for inspiring the champions of pro basketball to work as a team—in short, Pat Riley is a master at creating success. The Winner Within is his game plan for team players in all of life—not just on the court but in business, at home, and in personal achievement. Here are his winning strategies that inspire change, motivate teamwork, and reveal the winner within us all.

“Pat Riley is a true master . . . no one committed to success can afford to miss this opportunity to learn from the coach of the decade.”—Anthony Robbins, bestselling author of Awaken the Giant Within

About this title

About the Author

Pat Riley is one of the most successful basketball coaches in NBA history. As a coach, Riley won multiple championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat, the latter for which he became a front office executive. In 2012, Riley received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the NBA Coaches Association.

From Kirkus Reviews

Winning, if demanding, prescriptions for success from one of the NBA's best coaches. Drawing on his experiences in and out of professional basketball, Riley (Showtime, 1988) takes a hard-line approach to personal growth. By his anecdotal account, achievement is more reliant on cooperation, diligence, positive thinking, preparation, resilience, respect for authority, and other bedrock virtues than on tricks of the trade. Not too surprisingly (in light of his vocation), the author puts a premium on teamwork, notably on its highest manifestation--unselfish willingness to subordinate individual goals to the good of a group. Using object lessons learned during his near-miss as well as championship seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, Riley provides cautionary insights on withstanding pressure, the perils of complacency, the frustrations of playing not to lose, and the roles to be played by superstars and lesser lights. Having spent time in the trenches (e.g., as a no-name coaching assistant), he values and commends apprenticeship as an opportunity to develop skills--and perception--in arenas where physical or intellectual gifts are merely starting points. He also endorses occasional, calculated outbursts of ``temporary insanity'' as an effective means of jolting sports or other organizations in need of wake-up calls. Throughout, however, the writer and coach maintains an impressive sense of proportion, to be seen in vignettes of a family friend who survived a racking bout with breast cancer; the combat vet responsible for getting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., built; his own father-in-law (a WW II submariner); and others whose triumphs have little to do with athletic glory. Engaging, down-to-earth advisories from a master of the game. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0425141756
• ISBN 13: 9780425141755
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272