by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc®
“For the rest of the fourth quarter, the U.S. depth and talent reasserted itself, resulting in the reasonably comfortable win.” New York Times Olympic 2021 report ‘U.S. Women’s Basketball Team Staves Off Pesky France,’ August, 2021
You may have just heard recently that the Milwaukee Bucks won the 2020-21 NBA championship. What you may not have known was that this success was 4-5 years in the making. Taking what was another Cinderella team to the pinnacle of basketball fame just doesn’t happen overnight. It also took the Golden State Warriors, a similarly lackluster team, around five years to make their run of three times NBA champions inside of four years.
The Bucks and the Warriors followed the similar enlightened formula for success. Put in place the right leadership – not management – team, set the right vision and strategy – based on “effectiveness” rather than “efficiency”, and then assemble and engage the right team players – rather than “bodies” or “headcount”; and then you can build a winning team. In the case of the Warriors, some serious injuries to key players and a major move to a new arena has impacted it short term. If it can revitalize its leadership team – its winning coach was suffering health issues – and its player team, we will hear more about the Warriors again in the future.
Coming back to the Bucks, the new ownership team of four highly successful businessmen bought into this basketball team during the 2014-15 season and then set-about assessing what needed to be done to rebuild their franchise. It hadn’t won a championship since 1971. By season 2016-17 they gave up scouting for a new General Manager and instead promoted Jan Horst, their then Director of Basketball Operations for several years, into this vital spot. Horst went on to become the NBA Executive of the Year in 2019 for his efforts in rebuilding the Bucks into a national contender. He in turn recruited Mike Budenholzer to become team coach during the 2018-19 season.
Budenholzer, like Horst, was also a strong believer in building people talent and building team commitment toward success. He had had some notable successes with another Cinderella team called the Atlanta Hawks. The Budenholzer-Horst, coach-GM duo initially worked hard at developing the people talent they had, which included a future star. Giannis Antetokanmpo – we will call him Giannis A – was acquired from an Athens, Greece, basketball team in 2013. Over time, initially under Horst and then Budenholzer, they built Giannis A into an All Star player and then he went on to win two NBA MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards.
With Giannis A as a potential superstar, they worked hard at developing the talents of other team members and making opportunistic free-agent acquisitions to further increase the team’s bench strength. The issues they worked hardest at were building individual and team confidence, as well as deepening team cohesion and spirit. It began to pay off during the NBA playoffs in 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. They really tested themselves against top Eastern Conference teams and fell just short of qualifying for the finals. Even so, they were finally ready for prime time during the 2020-21 season NBA final, best-of-seven games againstthe Phoenix Suns. However, the Suns were deemed the strong favorites to win.
Despite losing their first two games on the Sun’s home court – Game 1 they lost 105 to 118 and Game 2 108 to 118 – they fought back on their home court to level the series at two games apiece – Game 3 they won 120 to 100 and Game 4 109 to 103. This writer recalls watching a Buck’s team member on TV extolling his team’s resilience by coming from behind in both games to take the win. That particular player lauded their team spirit and determination for its surprising wins. His team then went on to win in Game 5 on the Sun’s home court 123 to 119. This gave the Bucks the confidence and the will to win Game 6, 105 to 98, in front of its home crowd; a sweet moment, indeed. Giannis A won his second MVP award: one of only three players ever able to do so.
During the after game celebrations, it was plain to observe the affection and respect the Bucks players had for their coach and GM. Horst had finally delivered on what he promised would happen during the prior two seasons; one of which was compromised by the pandemic and player illness. Horst constantly promoted that his team would succeed by playing for each other rather than individual glory. Budenholzer reinforced that philosophy wholeheartedly.
Our take-away from this inspiring story reaffirms once more the optimum, enlightened-leadership success-strategy. Assemble the right leadership – not management – team to pull together a compelling vision (to become NBA champions within 5 years) based upon “effectiveness-thinking” (innovation and breakthroughs). Then with patience and determination, build and positively reinforce a talented team. Both the Bucks and the Golden State Warriors were unfailing in such a success-strategy; pursued with both consistency and resolve until their pay- off. All the signs are that Horst will build a near term dynasty by retaining Budenholzer and adding further benchstrength to his player-team: as a way of holding onto Giannis A, who will be tempted by a myriad of flattering offers from other teams during his final year of contract. The same will go for other team members, too: they are now in the crosshairs of other ambitious teams going forward.
Beyond that, this successful team will now have to resist its inclination toward a likely degree of leadership hubris by retaining its prior humility – a pretty hard act in the circumstances. It has already added Jrue Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans team to take some MVP pressure off Giannis A. If these moves and sentiments can be sustained prior to and during the 2021-22 season, we could well see the Bucks back in the NBA finals in 2022. That’s the way you position and pathfind things for a potential successful dynasty.
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