Category: Basketball

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Sports Parenting Lessons from the Houses of Woods, Williams and Ball

Sports Parents

Tarlin and Mike return again. This time to run it back to the history of dominant sports dads who built cultures and drew fire as their offspring rose to unprecedented heights in the sports world. We begin by looking at the story of LeVar Ball who is attempting to build a family business in the NBA with Lonzo Ball and likely 2021 Rookie of the Year LaMelo Ball already thriving. From there, we run it back to the narratives around Earl Woods raising Tiger Woods and Richard Dove Williams Jr raising Venus and Serena Williams.

What do these stories have in common and what lessons can we learn about parenting, leadership, and family? We explore all of this and also look at the frequently unsung roles of the mothers in these sports families. Are we really talking about Co-CEOs as the key to building a sports legend? How are these alpha Dads reminiscent of Steve Jobs? And is Kultida Woods truly the Tiger Mom of all Tiger Moms?

Listen in to find out. And be sure to subscribe to Running It Back wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at RunningItBack.fm for more great shows like this!

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Linsanity – Lessons Learned from a Magical Run

Tarlin and Mike are back to talk about Jeremy Lin’s historic hot streak back in 2012 when he took advantage of his opportunity with the New York Knicks to break through and lead the team to an amazing winning streak before being sidelined with an injury and getting traded to the Houston Rockets. We explore what got him to that point and why he captured the global consciousness at the time before shifting focus to what lessons we can draw from his experience both during the stratospheric heights of 2012 to what is now a 10 year professional career in the NBA.

We also explore his role as a trailblazer, a role model, and an influencer as issues of AAPI hate and bias have recently bubbled up in America and beyond. We talk through what Linsanity means to Knicks fans (Mike) and Harvard Alums (Tarlin) before concluding with takeaways about self-belief, focus and preparation in what we hope is an inspirational return trip to a magical performance during a brief stretch of time nearly 10 years ago.

Thanks as always for Running It Back with us. If you like what you’re hearing subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and check us out at RunningItBack.fm.

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Steph Curry’s Legendary NCAA Tourney Run at Davidson

Tarlin and Mike are back to talk about Stephen Curry, the shooter and gamechanger. What lessons can we learn from Steph’s first emergence onto the national stage in the 2008 NCAA Tournament when Davidson advanced to the Elite Eight as a 10-seed?

How does the House of Curry stack up against other NBA lineages? How does Steph compare to Reggie Miller and Dame Lillard? By analyzing the impact of an NBA legend who has been consistently underestimated, we learn how he changed the game and how his impact includes lessons that transcend the dimensions of a basketball court.

If you like what your hearing, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And visit us at RunningItBack.fm for all the best lessons to be learned from the world of sports.

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Jordan’s “Flu Game”, The Jazz, and Reggie Miller

In the final installment of our miniseries about The Last Dance miniseries, Tarlin and Mike break down the final two episodes of The Last Dance for lessons learned as well as a few healthy doses of 1990s nostalgia.

Here we recap the Michael Jordan-led 1990s Bulls’ final two NBA Championship runs versus Reggie Miller’s Indiana Pacers and the Stockton-Malone Utah Jazz. We get into Jordan’s dubious portrayal of the so-called “Flu Game” and Mike tries to protect the honor of the pizzerias of Salt Lake City. What lessons can we learn from Jordan’s superteam as we think through the keys to leadership, teamwork, and winning in these tumultuous times.

We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed putting this together. Here’s to us keeping on Running It Back!

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Jordan’s Baseball Years, The Glove and the Sonics, and the Bulls’ Return to Dominance

We run it back again to our roots in the Spring of 2020 when Tarlin and Mike were regrouping after the premiere of each episode of The Last Dance to break it down and look for lessons learned from each episode. We also indulged in some serious 90s nostalgia along the way.

In today’s show, we talk through Jordan’s stint at baseball, his return to Scottie’s Bulls, and the beginning of their second Threepeat in a classic NBA Finals matchup against Gary “The Glove” Payton and Shawn “Manchild” Kemp of the Seattle Supersonics.

We hope you enjoy. And stay tuned for our final wrapup show on The Last Dance slated to drop in the next few days!

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The Dream Team, Toni Kukoc, and Scottie’s Sitout

Once again, we run it back to Spring of 2020 in the midst of the first wave of COVID-19 when Mike and Tarlin began this crazy ride by analyzing episodes of The Last Dance for 1990s nostalgia along with some lessons learned for today’s day and age.

This episode covers episodes 5 and 6 of the 10 part docuseries called The Last Dance. We talk about Michael’s emergency as the alpha among alphas on The Dream Team, explore the Toni Kukoc narratives, and try to make sense of Scottie Pippen’s memorable choice to sit out the final 1.8 seconds of a pivotal playoff game between the Bulls and the Knicks in 1994.

There’s a lot to dig into and we hope you enjoy a glimpse into how Running It Back came into being. Thanks as always for listening.

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The Last Dance Origin Story Edition

Learn how Running It Back got started in this special episode which includes the original recording of our takes on the ESPN Docuseries, The Last Dance that launched in the Spring of 2020. Many of us, including Mike and Tarlin, were transfixed by this series that launched at the height of the first wave of the coronavirus before live sports returned to us.

Tarlin and Mike reminisce about Michael, Scottie, Dennis, and Phil as we try to glean lessons learned from the incredible story of the most dominant NBA Dynasty in recent memory.

If you want to learn how this all began, join us as we run it back to Spring 2020 and then all the way back to the 1990s during this unique and historic episode you won’t want to miss!

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LeBron versus Michael NBA GOAT Pod

Now that we’ve had a little time to let the 2020 NBA Season settle in, we thought it would be a great time to talk about who is the G.O.A.T Basketball player. There’s been a lot of hubbub around Michael versus LeBron so we weigh in with our takes there. We also bring Bill Russell and Kareem into the conversation about the greatest of all time.

And along the way, Tarlin makes his pitch to modernize the NBA logo, Mike brings in some random 1990s basketball references, and we commit to showing some range next time by broadening to more than the NBA. But for this show, it’s all about the GOAT of Basketball. We hope you enjoy!

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Blackballed – Donald Sterling and the 2014 Clippers

For this episode, based on the Quibi docuseries, Blackballed, we run it back to 2014 when Donald Sterling, then the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, was caught on tape engaging in offensive, racially charged speech. Once the tapes got out, there was outrage across the NBA and more broadly in the nation that ultimately led the newly appointed commissioner, Adam Silver, to impose a lifetime ban on Sterling that resulted in his sale of the team.

Tarlin and Mike share their quick takes on Quibi, which had just launched at the time, before digging into the relevance of the themes in the series. Since we recorded in late May, we connect this to the uproar triggered by the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. We look for lessons in leadership from the examples of Doc Rivers, Chris Paul, Adam Silver, and even Matt Barnes as we dive into a complex and relevant conversation about sports and its role in elevating consciousness about racial issues. We recorded this prior to the NBA’s season in the Bubble in Orlando, but much remains relevant as we continue to struggle with issues of race, justice, and equity in sports and in our broader society.