Rebound Rules The Art of Success 2.0 11-30-08

After leaving his job as the head coach of the Boston Celtics Rick Pitino returned to his vacation house in South Florida. He told the rest of his family that he needed time alone to reevaluate things. While alone Pitino went through all of the mistakes that he made while coaching the Celtics. He eventually came to the conclusion that he made three major mistakes. He decided that he made too many spontaneous decisions about players, he took too many shortcuts, and he beat himself up too much once he sensed that failure was in the air. He essentially made a list of all of the thing he should have done. Once he made it out of this state he started to look at other job situations. Three weeks after resigning from the Celtics he received a call from the University of Las Vegas. They wanted Pitino to become their new head coach. After being courted by the University of Las Vegas Pitino decided not to take the job there. While waiting on other offers Pitino was contacted by the University of Michigan and the University of Louisville. Once Pitino visited the University of Louisville he decided that there was where he wanted to continue his career. Many in Kentucky saw Pitino's move to Louisville as the move of a traitor. They saw it as this because a few years earlier he had led the University of Kentucky to a final four appearance and Kentucky Louisville is a huge rivalry. Currently Pitino still coaches at the University of Louisville.

Rebound Rules The Art of Success 2.0 11-30-08

Rebound Rules The Art of Success by Rick Pitino

In this book Rick Pitino, head basketball coach at the University of Louisville, gives the keys that he has used over his lifetime to rebound from times of adversity. The book starts on the eve of Pitino's last game as the coach of the Boston Celtics. Pitino tells his good friend and assistant coach, Jim O'Brien, that the game is no longer fun for him and he does not believe in chasing money. In fact, he states that "if you chase money, you're not necessarily chasing success. Give yourself success, and money will chase after you as if its your shadow" (Pitino). Pitino had chased the biggest contract in basketball history. He had signed a 10 year $50 millinon contract to coach the Boston Celtics. In chasing this large contract Pitino found himself in a situation that he had very little success, which led to little happiness. Once Pitino realized this he resigned, leaving behind $23 million. The money that he left behind meant little to him because he knew that once he found success again he would make back the money that he was leaving.

Why We Can't Wait 11-4

In the next chapter King brings up a question, "What is the Negro willing to pay if we give him his freedom" (King 117)? In saying this King is trying to allow other american to realize that the same problems that were apparent during slavery times still exist now. The american people were still stretching the limits to see how far the African American would go for equality. Of course this stretching was done in in a more subtle way. King does an excellent job of reaching out to peoples conscience here. He names something that most would agree is a bad thing and compares it in a way that makes since to most people.

Why We Can't Wait 11-4

In a later chapter of this book King tells an anecdote about a young African American who was waiting to be killed by his own government. They called this capital punishment. But what was different about this killing than all of the other killing that the American Government took part in was that a new method was used. This was the first time that poisonous gas was used to kill people. Because of this the people who were preforming the slaughtering wanted to hear how the people reacted. To do this a microphone was placed in the chamber. When the gas was placed in the young African Americans chamber he shouted something like, Joe Lewis save me Joe Lewis save me. In telling this King is making a comparison to what he is seeing in the African American race. As a race African Americans were looking for one of their peers to help them instead of doing something themselves.