Editor’s note: This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering leadership, personal development and performance through the lens of sports. Follow Peak here.
Shane Battier was a “no stats all-star” as Michael Lewis famously declared years ago.
To Battier, his secret is simple. He’s a master of subtle details that make others around him better. He has always tried to weaponize data and analytics to understand his opponents before facing them. He mentored younger players, exuded positivity and embraced, even prioritized, the unsung duties of being a professional athlete.
“He was a man of the people before I knew what it meant to be a man of the people,” his former teammate Udonis Haslem said.
To be clear, Battier was naturally athletic and talented. He played in the NBA for 13 seasons and won two titles with the Miami Heat. As a two-time National College Player of the Year under coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, he also led the Blue Devils to a national championship.
But he was celebrated for his leadership, his effort and his basketball IQ. He was the definitive glue guy.
I wanted to talk to Battier about how he became that kind of person, what motivated him, and if he thinks anyone is capable of getting there.
You’ve said that when you were younger and you helped your friends win, you finally weren’t a misfit, you were a teammate and you belonged. So from an early age being a role player gave you a sense of belonging, but did that purpose change for you throughout your life or did it stay the same?
I was lucky to learn that lesson of inclusion at a very young age. Because I remember in kindergarten and first grade just feeling different. Physically different, racially different, financially different. I just felt like I was an outcast, whether that was in my own head or not, I don’t know, but that was my reality.
But what I found at recess — when I helped my friends win, my team win — I was no longer the kid that was mixed, the kid that was tall or the kid that was really poor. I was just a kid.
It was a lesson that stuck with me my entire life. My entire basketball career was focused around two things: How do I help my teammates be the best they can be and what do I have to do to stay on the floor?
That did not change from first grade to the last day of my days in the NBA, and that’s something I’m very proud of.
That’s why I never had a problem diving for loose balls, running back on defense or being a solid inbounds passer. The really unglorious parts of basketball, I took pride in. Because I knew those things all contributed to winning at a high level.
You use the term “spotlight metrics” to describe what a lot of people care about in their everyday lives, maybe without even realizing it. Things like likes and follows or the coolest outfit. I’m wondering what if people don’t have these kinds of experiences that shape their mindset early on like you did. How can they get there?
The way I would explain it is funny. Why is the box score the box score in basketball? It’s the box score because those are the easiest things to measure. It’s easy to measure three-point shots and rebounds and assists and steals, right? And that is our best guess at how basketball games are won and lost. But that doesn’t mean the best metrics. I built my entire career on the things that you can’t measure.
So my argument to the people who are skeptical is that there are so many ways that you can impact a team and help a team win that will never, ever show up in the stats sheet or in the KPIs (key performance indicators).
We talk about macro-resilience where there’s a recession or there’s a big riff or there’s major trauma within a group or a company. Oftentimes it’s easier to rally the troops around those sort of things and say, “Hey, we’re going to fight through this.” But just as important is micro-resilience.
So many people get stuck if they go to the coffee shop and the barista messes up their order. Their day’s ruined. Or they’re driving in traffic and laying on the horn because there’s traffic and they’re late for a meeting and it ruins their day. People who have the ability just to bounce back from the little micro-aggressions that they suffer every single day and move on to the next opportunity and don’t let it ruin everything? That’s an important skill. And that will never show up in any KPI.
You become known as “Oh, this person is really reliable. She always bounces back, she’s unflappable.” That’s super valuable to a team. And if you have enough of those people, those teams win.
Another action would be what I call productive discomfort. It’s getting comfortable being uncomfortable. You only grow in life when you put yourself in a situation where you have to stretch and grow. And again, there’s no measurement for that.
If you get enough people in a group that aren’t afraid to stretch and grow and fail and keep going, that’s super valuable. Those teams win. This is what the inner workings of every successful team I’ve been on look like. It’s the things that you don’t see that aren’t measurable that championship teams do that average teams just don’t. I’ve lived it so I feel very passionate about it.
Is there a moment that this all makes you think of? When all the benefits of maintaining this mindset came together?
The seminal moment of my career was Game 7 in the 2013 NBA Finals.
In that playoff run, I had the worst shooting stint of my entire career. At one point, I think I was 4 for 28 from the 3-point line, and I felt terrible. I felt like I was letting the team down. We were trying to win a back-to-back championship with the Miami Heat. My playing time was being reduced every game because I just couldn’t make a shot. And so I felt bad.
In Game 7, no one’s expecting me to go out and make 6 of 8 3-pointers in that game. No one in that gym, no one on the team, no one watching that game. It was the game of my life and the biggest game of my life. And when the buzzer sounded, I kind of had a moment where I was just like, “Wow, the lifetime of habits that I’ve built led me to this moment.” It wasn’t the pump-up speech I listened to before the game or the Wheaties I had that morning or the positive mantra I said before the game. It was a lifetime of doing the right thing, of doing the things that I need to do to help my team.
Battier said he had no problem doing the “unglorious” parts of basketball, such as diving for loose balls, because he knew it helped winning. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
Everyone’s role is going to be different and understanding your role and committing to it for your team is super important. But for some people, maybe it’s harder to figure out what their role is or what their purpose is. How do you figure that out?
You have to have the ability to put yourself in uncomfortable positions to grow. You have to try a lot of things, and you have to expose yourself to different people and different ideas and different ways of doing things.
After I retired, I took a job at ESPN and I didn’t like it. I knew it immediately, even though people said, “Oh, you would be great on TV.” I wasn’t very good because my passion wasn’t broadcast media. And that’s OK. I didn’t look at that as a failure.
The only way that you will ever get stuck and you don’t grow is if you don’t ever stretch yourself.
I can imagine it was hard trying to find your role again and start new at ESPN before realizing all of that. And I’m sure there are so many other people who see themselves in you and that story, when they’re changing careers or pivoting after realizing something just isn’t “them.”
It wasn’t fun at the time. But looking back, it was a really meaningful experience in my life and I’m happy that I went through it. You know? Not all the things that you go through are going to be fun. Just like in my career. It wasn’t fun getting ready for the season and running wind sprints and running up mountains and suffering the physical pain it takes to get ready for an NBA season. But when you’re there, you’re like, “Oh man, I’m glad I did it. And if I didn’t do it, then I wouldn’t be in the NBA anymore.”
I wasn’t fast. I wasn’t strong. I just was willing to do the things that no one else would do.
People talk about eating the frog and so even to this day, I tell my kids, “You got to eat the frog.” Like, I know you don’t want to hop on the treadmill on Monday morning. But you got to do it. Once you get past it, you’re like, “I’m glad I hopped on the treadmill.” It’s a mindset, it’s a habit that no one really taught me. I’m going to try to eat the frog and do the hard things and I’ll be better for it.
What does being a role player give you that being a star in the spotlight maybe can’t?
Coach K said the best thing about being a role player and about being a member of a team when I was in college. He said, “Look, you guys are all role players. Every last one of you, you’re role players, OK? Now, maybe your role is to be a practice player and be the best practice player you can be and be ready and energized every single day. It might be your role to score 20 points a game. For us to win, we need both of those roles to be played to the best of their ability every single day.”
When you look at it from that perspective, there is no demotion in being a role player. Again, we’re all role players. Some have fancier titles and bigger responsibilities, but a team and a group cannot win and win big and be productive and be successful unless everyone plays their role to their best ability. There’s something noble in that. There’s something noble in saying, “You know what? I’m doing my job, and we’re all better because of it.”
The greatest joy you have in life is service to others. Look, I was lucky to win a ton of games and win championships, but it wasn’t the parades. It wasn’t the rings and the party. Those were all great. Don’t get me wrong. But it was a group of people coming together for a common goal. Going through the tough times, falling down, getting up, coming together, and it’s all those little moments within a team that you look back at and say, “Man, that was so hard, but it was worth it because we did something amazing.”
There’s nothing that’s been of note that’s been accomplished in life that hasn’t had that mentality or that dynamic, whether it’s sports, business, family, government, you name it. That’s the story of being a human and being part of a team.
