by Aristotle Bournazos

I have been a huge basketball fan for many years. I have played basketball since I was a little boy. I have played in the CYO league, the Harrison Middle School public school team, the Greek Orthodox Basketball League (GOBL) and Fordham Preparatory School Basketball team. I watched in anticipation for the Milwaukee Bucks and my favorite player Giannis Antetokounmpo to defeat the Miami Heat, they were the better team afterall. But it wasn’t meant to be. I was devastated when they lost in five games. How could this happen. It was just a bad dream. I then watched Giannis Antetokounmpo at the post game press conference. He was asked the questioned “was the season a failure”? And I thought to myself what would he say….of course it was, they were the number one rated team after all and they lost in the first round. But Giannis, poised, composed and with dignity responded no…..no it was not. It was a journey. It was a learning experience “steps to success”. “Michael Jordan played 15 years, won 6 championships, the other 9 years were a failure… ? It was disappointing but it was a season of learning. He and his team worked hard and they would come back next year stronger with more knowledge and would work harder toward winning a championship again , he said.

I write this only because it is inspiring and something that we can all learn from. If we work hard toward a goal we may not always reach that goal but we should not throw our hands up and give up. If we give our best effort in all that we do we never fail. We learn and we become stronger and smarter. I write this because sometimes I put my head down in disappointment because I don’t achieve what I expect, but Giannis’ post game interview inspires me to keep my head up no matter what. Giannis is the best of the best and sometimes does not achieve what he expects of himself. He does not see things as failure though. The word “failure” does not exist for him. Maybe disappointment but never failure. He sees the good in a bad situation and becomes better from it. We should all learn from his words. and be inspired. This article may not seem related to this blog but I believe it is. I believe that the Fed chairman, the leaders of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank all strive to do their very best for this country and the companies they represent. Sometimes things don’t turn out as expected, but if their intentions are pure and they come up short we all learn from the mistakes and become better for it.