Team of Destiny

By Thurl Bailey

Thurl Bailey knows what it takes to have a "Championship Mindset". With Thurl in the driver's seat, this book takes readers on a journey that started with a dreamer, Coach Jim Valvano. Jimmy V's ability to manifest his dream through a willing group of young players, culminated into winning the 1983 NCAA Championship against all odds. Sports Illustrated pinned the championship game as, "The greatest upset in sports in the 20th century." Thurl invites you to learn the secret of how you and your team can choose to have that championship mindset. Success does leave clues, and this book challenges you and the rest of today's dreamers to understand the importance of your own unique set of skills to help put you and your team in a position to win!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Big T Productions
• Release date: Dec 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781637606025

Book preview

GAME

INTRODUCTION

As former basketball players and coaches—and NCAA National Champions—we know a lot about achieving and winning. However, we also know what can be learned from failure and losing, the flip side of the same coin of competition. And so, in this book, we openly share our life and court experiences with one clear goal in mind: To help you win in your field and achieve your goals and dreams.

Hold fast to dreams, wrote African-American poet Langston Hughes, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. We all want to fly, holding fast to our dreams.

MY FATHER’S FINAL STORIES

On December 13, 2016, I sat with my then 83-year-old dad at his home in Nash County, North Carolina. It would be my last day on earth with him. I and my siblings had been with him for several days before, and we were all very aware of why it was important for us to be there together. At one point during this time, he spoke with each of his three sons and his two daughters, in essence to deliver his final advice to us collectively and individually, before he moved on to his next journey. He was very coherent and talkative when we arrived and seemed calm and collected for a man who had lived a full life and knew he didn’t have a lot of time left.

He put us all at ease, sensing that his children would have a tough time coming to grips with the inevitable. As we sat around his bed, he seemed so lively and excited that he had a captive audience—something he hadn’t had with all his children for many years—and so he began taking us on a journey back in time to dates and places we had never been. Sure, we had recollections of some of the stories, but it was different this time. We were taking this final trip with him together as a family. Although we had lost our mom, his wife several years before, it was as if she was along for the ride too. He would smile each time he mentioned her name in a story. We always knew it was true love.

Because of that moment, I came to truly appreciate the importance of life stories. Our personal stories can pierce the hearts and minds of others and change us.

Here are six reasons why I think our personal life stories matter:

•Stories have universal appeal

•Stories help us understand our place in this world

•Stories help us learn how to act in specific situations

•Stories help us shape our perspective of this world

•Stories help us understand others’ perspectives

•Stories pass down vital knowledge and morals to our posterity and legacies

WHY TELL OUR STORY NOW?

Some might think it strange that my teammates, coaches and I would retell our stories now in 2020 of that unfathomable 1983 season. There are several media accounts of that time in basketball history. But to my knowledge there is not a book written by the collective team. No one has really told the stories—and backstories—this way, from a front-row-seat perspective.

These stories and backstories are so important, especially today as we struggle to form championship teams of diversity and destiny. This is why that particular time in our lives is still relevant and vital to today’s dreamers.

I’ve been pondering a book for a while. Parts of me love talking about that 1983 team and other parts are too painful to reflect on—such as losing our coach, Jim Valvano, to cancer 10 years after that storied season, losing a loving soul like teammate Lorenzo Charles several years later and a few others over the years. I elected not to attend their funerals, not because I lacked respect. It was just the opposite. I decided to celebrate their lives in my own private and special way. Few things have hit me with such devastation over my almost 60 years of existence.

When I lost my parents a few years ago, I was blessed to have been prepared. I was with my dad when he took his last breath and I spent a week with my mom before she passed away. But I wasn’t ready to lose a man, Coach Jim Valvano, who had such an amazing effect on me as a person, as an athlete, as a friend. Knowing what I knew about him and his persona, I believed that Jim Valvano could overcome anything, because of how he carried himself, how he taught, how he convinced us that any goal was attainable with the right talent and team.

HOW TO BELIEVE AND ACHIEVE

However, the focus of this book isn’t centered on the championship game that made us famous, or about presidential visits, or even about Jimmy V and his talent as a coach. It’s more about learning how to believe and achieve, as told through the eyes of myself, my teammates and coaches, and about how to use life’s experiences to help others win their game of life.

A person doesn’t have to be president or win a national championship to understand that success is as much about the journey as it is the end result. In a small way, maybe this book will allow others to come along for the trip. Hopefully, just like in our championship team, readers learn something about the important journeys we all undertake.

The original premise of this book was to interview each player of the North Carolina State Wolfpack’s 1983 NCAA Championship Team, to document their journey. From those who were players on that team to others who worked closely with us and played a valuable role in helping us reach the ultimate goal. But after the interviews, I felt that it wasn’t enough— the book needed to be less about us and more about you—how you can become a champion at whatever you choose to be and do.

Each individual had some extraordinary experiences that led them serendipitously to be a part of an unforgettable experience. Jim Valvano was an amazing leader and a visionary coach ahead of his time. There are many who came to know about our championship journey through the sports documentary Survive and Advance, that debuted on ESPN several years ago. The documentary was a wonderful depiction of our journey, but now readers have a chance to get to know much more about the characters behind the championship and the people who made it happen. Everyone has a personal story or journey and I believe there’s much we can learn from each other. Although many know about our championship, few know about the individuals who helped make it happen. My hope is that as you journey through this book, that the words within these pages resonate with you.

REUNION AT THE WHITE HOUSE

As members of North Carolina State’s 1983 national championship basketball team, we still try to meet every couple of years since that unforgettable March and April, to renew friendships, reminisce and acknowledge what we have learned in the ensuing years.

But each time we engaged in our storytelling, there was a sense of absence, partly due to the loss of revered teammates and coaches, but also because of the absence of something that seemed to leave our championship celebration incomplete.... an official visit to the White House to meet the President of the United States.

We finally did get there in 2016, when President Barack Obama invited us to the East Wing for a ceremony that was 33 years in the making. It was worth the wait.

I told a writer at the time that our visit was majestic and surreal. I’m not even sure there were enough words to describe it, though overdue might be another one.

I had privately taken on the responsibility to initiate the effort to get us an invitation to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, primarily because I was from the D.C. area and had worked as a congressional page for three years during the summers after graduating from high school.

It’s not like the powers-that-be had totally ignored us. The 1982-83 season culminated in a live video feed with then President Ronald Reagan, which at that time was wonderful and somewhat technologically groundbreaking in itself. But it wasn’t up-closeand-personal. We had missed meeting with the President because NC State’s athletic department officials were concerned that we might somehow violate NCAA recruiting rules by appearing to have the President’s endorsement. So that’s where the matter sat for decades.

If it doesn’t seem that politics have dramatically and rapidly changed, consider this: When I asked Utah Senator Orrin Hatch in 2016 if he could help get us an audience with the President, he said he thought he could, even though Hatch was a high-ranking Republican and President Obama a Democrat. Senator Hatch asked me to write a personal letter of request and promised, I’ll walk it right into President Obama’s office. So I put pen to paper and wrote to President Obama in hopes that he might grant our long-standing wish:

Dear Mr. President:

In 1983 our North Carolina State University men’s basketball team, coached by the late Jim Valvano (Jimmy V), beat the University of Houston Cougars for the NCAA Championship. Because of players like Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, the Cougars were the heavy favorites to win. As a college basketball fan yourself, I’m sure you can recall the significance of not only what that championship meant to our team, but also the message it embodied to the world that, with strong determination, the underdog can achieve great success.

It was an incredible journey for a group of young men who committed to the philosophy of a young enthusiastic coach to, Never Ever Give Up. I encourage you, Mr. President, if you have not already, to watch the award-winning sports documentary, Survive and Advance which chronicles our miracle run.

With that said, the one thing that has eluded us for these many years is a chance for the members of our team to visit the White House by invitation of the President of the United States. To my knowledge, we may be the only NCAA championship basketball team to not be officially invited. My hope is that you will grant an opportunity to a team who truly embodied the definition of what sports should represent. We were, as producer Jonathan Hock penned it in the documentary, A team of destiny, led by a once-in-a-generation coach, that capped the last true golden age of college basketball. But even more than that, our story was one of hope, commitment, vision, and how a team of individuals with a true purpose could achieve the ultimate goal.

Over the years we have lost a few members of our basketball family, including our coach Jimmy V and teammate Lorenzo Charles who scored the championship game’s winning shot. However, every year we all try to find time to reunite in Raleigh, N.C., to honor their memories and carry on the legacy of that season. I hope that you will seriously consider and grant us an opportunity to visit you in our Nation’s Capital.

Shortly after, I got a call from a White House representative. Soon we were in D.C., meeting with the President. Whether or not a person agrees with certain administrative policies, being greeted by the Commander in Chief is special.

THE POINT OF THIS BOOK

You have agency, meaning you have a choice. You can choose to become what you most want to become—a dream that is in harmony with your unique set of talents, gifts, abilities and characteristics. And with some personal discipline, along with some training and coaching, you and your team may have your title shot and your meeting with the President.

PREGAME

I WISH YOU COULD HAVE BEEN IN the pregame talks with Coach Jimmy Valvano, especially before the championship game against the Houston Cougars. In my opinion, the talent on that Houston team was some of the best ever assembled on any team in NCAA history. We were definitely underdogs, expected to lose by 15 to 20 points. The only chance we had, said some analysts, was to hold the ball. As a matter of fact, that is what Coach V had been telling the press in preparation for the game. But on game day, Coach V burst into the locker room and adamantly stated, If you guys think we’re going to hold the freaking basketball on these guys, you’re crazy! We are not going to hold the ball—we are going to play our game and beat this team!

FOCUS: YOUR WIN

As this book evolved, we changed the focus from our reflections on our ‘83 season to your personal growth and development because we want you to play and win your game of life more than we want you to replay our games. Personally I find that it’s more fun and rewarding to play a game than to work a job. If you love what you are doing and find a way to play it as a game, you will never work a day in your life. And if you keep score, you tend to improve faster.

That is why we decided to turn this book not into more work but into a game by adding goals, a point system and a scoreboard for those who want to use it as a development program, motivation tool, or game simulation.

HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED

Here’s how the game is played. You play both offense and defense in basketball, and it’s important to excel on both ends of the court. So, in our game, you can score points on defense by gaining 3 takeaways and on offense by making 3 pointers:

3 TAKEAWAYS.

A takeaway is like a defensive stop or steal and score. You learn and teach 3 lessons or morals from each story.

3 POINTERS.

After the profile and each commentary, you face

3-pointers—3 actions you can take to apply the lessons you

have learned.

We want you to keep score as a way of measuring your progress, and so we added a scoreboard (126 points are possible). You can play alone or with somebody. Also, to round out the game, we had added Pregame, Halftime and Post-game commentary.

Again, the primary goal of this book is to help you be a champion in whatever you choose to be and do in your life . . . to win your game of life and cut down the nets (celebrate).

PROFILE

POWER FORWARD

THURL BAILEY IS A MODEL FIELD/COURT LEADER.

PROFILE BY KEN SHELTON AND DOUG ROBINSON

HAVING PLAYED THE position of power forward for 20 years in college and professional basketball, our 6’11" friend, Big T, Thurl Bailey knows: you need power to move forward, achieve goals and win the game of life.

EXCEL AS SOLOIST AND TEAM PLAYER

Thurl is the former power forward for the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Wolfpack, a team that won the NCAA national championship in 1983, and for the Utah Jazz, 1983 to 1991 when he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. He returned to the Jazz in 1999 and would start a 20-year career as a broadcast analyst for the Jazz and AT&T Sports, in addition to working as an inspirational corporate and youth speaker, singer, songwriter, and film actor.

At NCSU, Thurl was a court leader, along with senior teammates Dereck Whittenburg and Sidney Lowe, in the Wolfpack’s miracle run to the 1983 NCAA Champion-ship. That year, under head coach Jim Valvano, he led the Wolfpack in scoring and rebounding. The Utah Jazz selected him as the 7th pick of the 1983 NBA draft for the quality of his character and the quality of his game. Thurl started for the Jazz his first two seasons, and then with the addition of Karl Malone in the 1985 NBA draft, Thurl became Coach Frank Layden’s first choice off the bench. Bailey had his two finest NBA seasons in 1987-89, averaging 20 points a game while playing in all 82 games but only starting 10 times in 87-88 and 3 times in 88-89. And yet he became the Jazz’s fifth-leading scorer of all time, and was the team captain of the Jazz for years. During his nine years with the Jazz, teammates knew they could depend on Thurl Bailey.

SERVANT LEADERSHIP

Throughout his career, Bailey has been involved in community service. Through his Big T Bailey Basketball Training Program, he and his coaches focus on youth basketball development while also teaching life skills that last beyond basketball. His basketball camps and clinics also focus on students with serious illnesses or disadvantaged backgrounds.

Why? Thurl was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in a high-crime neighborhood in the rough-and-tumble suburbs of Maryland, bordering D.C. But he didn’t let his conditions determine his aptitude, attitude or achievements.

Thurl was an athlete-musician-scholar who was bused to a white high school as part of the federally mandated program. He had no trouble fitting into a white world. He was affable, articulate, soft-spoken and smart. As his coach, Ernie Welch, recalls, Bailey crossed all lines, racially and socially. He had no groups—he was all groups. Then, as now, Bailey filled his calendar with activities. He became the school’s first black student body president and was captain of the basketball team, an all-Metro D.C. player, a member of the National Honor Society, winner of the highest academic award in the county and homecoming king. He sang in two choirs, played three instruments, won the faculty award for excellence and was a member of the Drama Club, yearbook staff, school newspaper staff, the flag-raising club, the cafeteria club and the broadcasting club, and won the school’s top awards for journalism and broadcasting. At Boys State he was voted governor by his peers. At NCSU, he performed in school theater as the character Crooks, in a student production of John Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men.

IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE

Bailey’s service has resulted in awards for leadership and community contributions, including the NBA’s prestigious Kennedy Community Award, the Utah Association for Gifted Children’s Community Service Award, Sigma Gamma Chi fraternity’s Exemplary Manhood Award, the Great SLC of the BSA American Champion Award and the Italian League’s 1998 All-Star Games Most Valuable Player. Bailey is a public speaker, a broadcast analyst for the Utah Jazz, an actor, and a singer/ songwriter. His albums include Faith In Your Heart (1998), The Gift of Christmas (2001), and I’m Not the Same (2002).

He’s chairman of Big T Productions, which promotes all things related to his Thurl Bailey Brand. He gives over 100 motivational talks every year and has performed as a musician with the Utah Symphony three times.

Thurl is also the father of six children. He has a daughter, Chonell, with his high school sweetheart, and two sons Thurl, Jr. and TeVaun from his first marriage. Thurl and his wife Sindi live near Salt Lake City and have 3 children—BreElle, Brendan and Bryson.

WOLFPACK: WORK AS A TEAM

Thurl’s new book focuses on his experiences and extracted lessons as part of the North Carolina State Wolfpack’s 1983 National Championship team.

As Rudyard Kipling wrote: For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. The Alpha wolf leads from the rear, where he can survey it all and ensure amazing teamwork and successful team hunts. The attitude of the wolf is always based upon the question, what is best for the pack? Thurl learned that the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Teams working cohesively and respectfully together tend to survive and succeed, while teams of ego-centric individuals will fail over time. So, it’s better to work and play together— you can always accomplish more as part of a team than by yourself.

Wolves have a complex communication system as part of their pack dynamics. They constantly communicate with each other through howls, barks and body language. Their packs have strict hierarchies and responsibilities. The alpha male and female produce the wolf pups. Other members of the pack may secure food or protect the pack. Each wolf knows his or her place, and sticks to his or her role responsibilities, although they may jostle for leadership within a pack, if a particular wolf weakens. But all know teamwork in the pack is key to thriving in tough environments. They rely on each other for everything from help hunting to warmth during the cold nights. Moreover, a pack has a much greater chance of bringing down a sizable kill than a lone wolf. The team that plays together stays and succeeds together. That’s why it’s so important to bond with and genuinely like your teammates.

Every member of the pack shares in leadership responsibilities as necessary. Members are prepared not only to carry their own load but also to assume greater leadership at any time. The pack leader starts as the trailblazer, but other pack members take turns to lead, allowing the pack leader to rest. Wolf pups are trained from an early age to assume their roles because their life depends on it. They respect each member’s contribution. In a howling Wolfpack, each wolf assumes a unique pitch, has its own voice, and respects the voice of every other wolf. They watch and listen closely to prevent or mitigate conflict within the pack. During a losing streak, Wolfpacks may only have a 1 in 10 success rate when hunting, but when a hunt fails, rather than brood, they get on with the next hunt—and learn lessons from their mistakes. Pack elders constantly teach and mentor younger wolves, knowing that the young are their future.

MAJOR IN TEAM CHEMISTRY

In his college Wolfpack, Big T majored in Team Chemistry, seeing it as the key to a successful season, team or franchise. He states: You need strong leadership on and off the court. Everyone has to buy into the message and be on the same page to achieve high goals. If players are not playing together, you can’t win games over time. You don’t need to be close friends off the court, but you do have to trust each other on the court as teammates. Our Utah Jazz teams trusted each other implicitly when the ball tipped off. Team chemistry is everything to team success, and it all starts with leadership.

Thurl recalls his days at North Carolina State University: Since Coach Jim Valvano didn’t recruit most of us when he was hired to take over for Coach Norm Sloan, who was leaving for the University of Florida, he had to earn our trust—and we had to earn his. Coach V was so good at knowing each of us individually and what it took to motivate us, to get the best out of each of us. Off the court, he trusted the upper-classmen (me, Dereck Whittenburg, and Sidney Lowe), and we had the trust and respect of the rest of the team. When something went down on or off the court, we made sure everyone kept the ultimate goal in mind and stayed on course.

Valvano urged the Jazz to use their first pick on him, saying: Don’t think of Thurl as just a player, but as a person who will be good for the team and the community.

In 1984 as a rookie forward, Thurl helped the Utah Jazz make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Team chemistry played a big role in our success, he said. Collectively we all had to be on board and not settle for mediocrity. Coach Frank Layden pushed us to want to be better and to go further than any previous Utah Jazz team before us had been.

Coach Layden once said: I remember being at Dixie College for training camp and the players were gathered around me. They were talking as I was talking, and all of a sudden I heard Bailey say, ‘Shut up! The man is teaching us how to win!’ When I heard him I thought, ‘We’re going to be okay this year because we’re getting team leadership and pride.’ We had players who liked each other, who respected each other, and who were willing to play as a team.

When Bailey returned to Utah for his final