Tag: NBA

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Kyrie, The Vaccine, and the NBA

Kyrie Irving

Tarlin and Mike are back. This time it’s to talk about vaccines and the NBA with the spotlight on Andrew Wiggins, Bradley Beal, and the mercurial Kyrie Irving as we head into the 2021-2022 season. We touch on the comments by LeBron James and Draymond Green in response to the decisions of several players to opt-out of the Covid-19 vaccine despite its impact on their ability to suit up regularly.

What lessons can this teach us about leadership? How does this tie back to Sandy Koufax, Joe Montana, and the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls? Is Kyrie a latter day heyoka as understood by the Sioux people–one who walks backward much in the way that Phil Jackson famously described Dennis Rodman? And what can be learned by the example of Wiggins who ultimately opted into the vaccine?

We cover all of this and hope to tease out lessons learned from the challenge of vaccine protocols to team dynamics in the world of sports and in our everyday lives.

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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Space Jam and Space Jam 2

Space Jam: A New Legacy

Tarlin and Mike are back again with a special bonus episode of Running It Back where we look for lessons learned from the Space Jam franchise coinciding with the recent release of LeBron’s new film, Space Jam: A New Legacy. To start, we give respect and a little tunefulness in honor of the late great Biz Markie, RIP.

Then we begin by digging back into the context around the first Space Jam movie which was fleshed out in The Last Dance documentary which we’ve covered on other shows. We bask in a little 90s nostalgia for MJ’s charisma and a cast of NBA Legends at the time including Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Larry Johnson, Mugsy Bogues, and Shawn Bradley.

From there, we jump to the Summer of 2021 and the release of the new Space Jam vehicle featuring LeBron, Diana Taurasi, Clay Thompson among others. How does the new version stack up against the OG Space Jam? What are our thoughts on Don Cheadle’s performance as Al G Rithm in the WB Serververse? What marketing advice do we have for Warner Brothers and who is Mike’s pick to star in Space Jam 3?

Listen in to find out!

For more great shows like this Subscribe to Running It Back wherever you get your podcasts. And check us out at RunningItBack.fm

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Giannis the King – 2021 NBA Finals Edition

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Tarlin and Mike are back to break down the 2021 NBA Finals, beginning with CP3 before concluding with Giannis. How do we place players like Giannis and the Point God and their respective teams into the annals of history now that the Milwaukee Bucks have triumphed in six games? What lessons can be learned from the example of the Bucks culture and the leadership style of Giannis Antetokounmpo that can be applied in other areas of our lives?

And what of the old adage, “Offense wins games, Defense wins championships?”

We cover all of this and even speculate about potential casting decisions for Space Jam 3. Listen in and enjoy!

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CP3 the Point God

Christopher Emmanuel Paul III

Tarlin and Mike are back looking for lessons learned in sports. This time we take a deep dive into the career arc and leadership lessons of one Christopher Emmanuel Paul III, aka CP3, aka the Point God. How have the last two years in his lengthy NBA career allowed for a new understanding of his leadership style and championship pedigree?

We compare CP3 to other NBA greats who never won a Championship and go back and forth while running it back to the 1993 NBA Championship–the last time the Suns made it to the Finals. How will the Point God stack up with the pantheon of NBA legends and what lessons can we draw from his evolution as a leader culminating in this historic run in the Valley of the Sun?

Listen in to find out.

Subscribe to Running It Back wherever you get your podcasts and visit us at RunningItBack.fm.

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The Malice in the Palace

Tarlin and Mike run it back to November of 2004 where the infamous Malice in the Palace took place in Auburn Hills, Michigan. We draw parallels between a recent spate of incidents between players and fans and what quickly escalated into the worst fracas in NBA history during a game between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers. The Malice involved players fighting fans in the stands and on the court and was much more severe than what we’ve seen in the 2021 NBA Playoffs so far, but we look for lessons to be learned for today here.

If you want to refresh your memory, here’s the video of the melee. And here’s a great interview of Reggie Miller by Dan Patrick that gets at what it was like to be amid the chaos back in the day.

Ron Artest, Ben Wallace, Stephen Jackson and others brought a toughness that we haven’t seen lately in the NBA, but the roiling emotions and poor boundaries on the part of fans can lead to out-of-control scenes like what we saw in Detroit in 2004. We spend time finding narratives and connections to the Malice in the Palace that resonates in the disruptive times we’re living in today.

If you enjoy what you’re hearing, subscribe wherever you get your podcast. 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!