Michael Jordan...Mystic?

I got a call from someone at the YMCA yesterday, asking if we are okay in these COVID times. There was also another gentle "ask" to contribute some or all of our suspended fees to the Y, which is suffering the way other enterprises are. It's weird not to get to the gym regularly but I have my own modest weight setup here. And the bonus is that I can work out in front of the TV, the anti-couch potato phenomenon.

I just finished the highly entertaining series called The Last Dance which explores the extraordinary Chicago Bulls basketball team on the 1990's. As you might imagine, the focus is on the incomparable Michael Jordan, perhaps the best player to ever take to the hardwood. 

We are reminded that Michael was focussed and even driven from the time he was a boy in North Carolina. He was always talented but he was willing to push himself, learn from coaches, adapt to new strategies through the years. even though he was considered one of the best of his era he bulked up physically to withstand the pounding he took from opponents.

It's fair to say that his drive to win meant that at times he was a bully with his teammates, hectoring them in practices to excel, even those who were really the bit players on the various iterations of the team through the years. 

The final episode introduces a different perspective when one observer of that decade suggests that Michael was a "mystic", able to be totally in the moment, shutting out all distractions. It is the brief observation at the beginning of the segment and there is another allusion near the end.

The coach of the six championship teams was Phil Jackson, son of a fundamentalist preachers who probably would have taken a dim view of any sort of mysticism. even though it is has strong roots in Christianity. Jackson left that background behind but he embraced Buddhism, or at least incorporated aspects of it into his personal practice and philosophy. He also introduced this into the team dynamic and somehow convinced players with tremendous individual skills to diminish their egos for the sake of a greater good -- championships.

Jackson introduced a "One Team, One Breath" program when he moved on to the Los Angeles Lakers (five more championships), bringing in a meditation teacher to work with his players. 

Was Michael Jordan a mystic? That's a bit of a stretch, but what a reminder that the contemplative life can make a difference in virtually every sphere of life, even with alpha males. 

Hey, in these days of isolation there is opportunity for all of us to become a little more contemplative. For Christians it can mean connecting with the presence of the living God in ways that go beyond the conventions of our regular religious patterns. Less Netflix, more prayer?