GIVE 329 HIGH FIVES
Dec 31, 2022
GIVE 329 HIGH FIVES
Undersized South African born kid growing up in small town Victoria, British Columbia, not usually the recipe for a 2 time NBA MVP.
Actually never even close to the recipe.
But sometimes great recipes call for different added ingredients.
Think about the best cake you have ever had in your life, and now add a scoop of ice cream with fudge on top of it. You think you would like it even more? Of course! (unless your allergic to fudge that is) Point being, what you think is great can be enhanced even more than you currently fully fathom.
This Canadian-raised kid is Steve Nash. One of the best NBA point guards to ever stop on a basketball floor.
Was he super athletic? No.
Was he super strong? No.
Could he jump really high? No.
Was he tall? Definitely no.
Could he even dunk? Maybe, on a good day. A really good day.
But Steve had an ingredient that no one else in the league could match. Giving high fives.
I know what you’re thinking, ‘Giving high fives?? What?? What kind of advantage can that give someone?’
Every year Nash played in the NBA he led the league in my favorite stat: high fives given. Averaging 329 per game. 329?!!! That’s absurd!! Yeah it is, but so was Nash’s ability to lead, motivate, encourage, get the most out of players that otherwise would have been struggling to stay in the NBA. Nash created more 100 million dollar contracts for teammates with his ability to put them in their best position both on the court and through his ‘high fives’ (positive reinforcement and speaking life into his teammates)
Teammates' value skyrocketed and once they landed on another team apart from Nash to cash out on the Nash-effect, they were never the same, coming nowhere close to the player they were when they played alongside Steve.
There is a power in the high five. I know that the coronavirus has created restrictions on high fives (even an air high five six feet away would work) Instantaneously the high five tells someone they are important, they have worth. The high five is such a small event which lasts a very short time, but the lasting impact of the high five is empowering and sometimes life changing. Ask that to Steve Nash’s teammate Amare Stoudemire who thrived alongside Nash in the pick & roll offense becoming an NBA All Star in Phoenix and earning a five year 100 million dollar deal with the New York Knicks (where he never had a season half as productive as he did with Nash)
Why is the high five so powerful? The power of acceptance + the power of appreciation + the power of encouragement = the most powerful success tool you can ever carry in your pocket. And the good news is, you can always have it in your pocket ready to give a high five at any time; the office, the grocery store, at home to your kids. It doesn’t even have to be a world altering achievement to earn a high five. Nash would give high fives for teammates cutting hard off the ball without even having an impact on the play. But you better believe that high five carried the weight until the next time the player got the ball, they became unstoppable. Your high five could be the assist people in your life are starving for. Have the Nash-effect, 329 times a day.
