I could tell you many stories that are similar to this story. As time goes on I will add more and more of this type of story to the blog. Today’s story is a story I have started telling in my workshop/class to bring awareness to what is truly important.

I want to tell you a story about two NBA players. These two NBA players were on different teams – Vince Carter and Patrick McCaw. At the point of this story, Vince Carter is a superstar who has had a long, distinguished career and will be in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Patrick McCaw, although he is in the NBA (let’s face it, if you are a player in the NBA, you are one of the best basketball players in the world, so I take nothing away from Patrick’s abilities with this story) is at the beginning of his career and in comparison to Vince Carter, more than likely he will never be a superstar.

Vince’s team and Patrick’s team are playing all out to try and win the game. I’m sure you can understand there is nothing more important than winning this game. Well at one point in the heat of the battle, Patrick McCaw was driving to the hoop and was airborne. Vince was defending him and things happen so fast – it wasn’t done on purpose. Vince found himself out of defensive position and he undercut Patrick while he was in the air. Patrick flipped over Vince’s shoulder, crashing to the court floor landing extremely awkward on his side and back. When Patrick hit he immediately flailed around on the ground for a moment and then went stiff. Without hesitation Vince was trying to help Patrick.

The coaches and doctors came running out on the court to help Patrick. By the time they made it to him he was saying that he couldn’t feel his legs. At this point, there was nothing that Vince could do except step back and let the doctors and coaches help as much as they could. As Vince stood there, this superstar basketball player who is 6’6” and 220 lbs., with nothing else to do but watch the coaches and doctors trying to help Patrick, he stood there with tears running down his face and crying.

This took place on Vince’s home basketball court so the crowd was against Patrick’s team. As they put Patrick on a stretcher and took him off the court, the crowd stood and gave him a standing ovation.

Remember when I said earlier in this story, there is nothing more important than winning the game? Well Vince Carter, the coaches, doctors, all of the players on both teams as well as all the people in the stands, proved that there is nothing more important than the human being. My wife and I were personally watching this game and I can’t even tell you which team won. There are no throw-away people.

P.S. Patrick wound up being okay.

As always, if you have stories like this, I would love for you to share them with me so that I can share them on this blog. Please comment below and if you want to follow my blog click on the plus sign in the upper left. See you next week!