Book of Basketball

Don't Get Rid of Anxiety. Use It.

excellence, actually, 16 July 2026. The book comes up at 34 min 27 sec in.

A speaker draws on Bill Simmons' book to illustrate the tension between peak performance and personal fulfilment, recalling Simmons' analogy comparing Shaq's NBA career to a brilliant student who parties through college and graduates with a 3.4 rather than a 4.0 GPA. The point is that Shaq could have been the greatest player ever with MJ- or Kobe-level relentless focus, but may have chosen not to carry the anxiety that demands.

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