"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck..."

Someone once said that the devil doesn't come dressed in a red cape and pointy shoes, but as everything you've ever wished for in life.  I like the Dalai Lama's version better - "Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck."  There's a really great basketball player who is currently learning this lesson in a very hard and a very public way.

Kyrie Irving seemed to have everything going for him - he won the National Basketball Association's Rookie of the Year Award in the year after he was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers.  He is a six-time NBA All-Star (even winning the All-Star Game's MVP Award in 2014), 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist, and NBA Champion while playing for the Cavaliers in 2016.  He even starred in his own film called Uncle Drew (based on a popular Pepsi commercial).

All of this just wasn't enough - in July, 2017 Irving requested a trade, reportedly because he wanted to be the number one star player on his own team (instead of playing alongside basketball great, LeBron James).  The divorce, as they say, was very public.  Irving reportedly told a source at ESPN that he had grown "tired of being Robin to James' Batman."  Both Irving and James traded several thinly veiled shots at one another in social media.  The relationship between the two stars was essentially broken.  Irving was ultimately traded to the Boston Celtics on August 22, 2017.

So how has Irving's tenure with the Celtics been so far?  Well, his first game of his first season with the Celtics is somewhat illustrative.  While he had a good game statistically (22 points and 10 assists), he missed a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer against his former teammates with the Cavaliers.  Things started looking much better until March of his first year, when a left knee injury forced him to the bench for the remainder of the season.  How did the Celtics do in his absence?  They missed the NBA Finals by one game, losing the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers four games to three.

Okay, how about his second season with the Celtics?  Well, the preseason favorites for winning the 2019 Eastern Conference Finals are currently in fifth place.  As of this past weekend, they have only won one game since the mid-season All-Star Break.  And everything points to Kyrie Irving leaving as a free agent at the end of the season.  This past Sunday, Irving was reportedly overheard saying, "I won't miss this shit when I'm done playing" while walking to a game with the Houston Rockets at TD Garden in Boston.  The Celtics lost (it was never close), and Irving said very little during his post-game interview.

Again - be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.  Irving wanted to be the focal point on a professional basketball team.  He wanted to be a team's star player, the leader of his own team.  He no longer wanted to be in the shadow of LeBron James.  He got his wish.  And he is failing to deliver.  In a big way.

I think it's fair to say that Kyrie Irving forgot one very important key to good leadership.  When you are a leader, "It's not about you."  Plain and simple.  Leadership is a responsibility and NOT "a platform for adulation and unbound privilege."  "If you don't care about those you lead - you have no business leading them."  Leadership is not defined by a position of power.  Leadership is not about being the best on the team either.  If you are looking for a better example, just look at the person that Kyrie Irving wanted to get away from - LeBron James just recently moved up into the top 10 of NBA Assists Leaders, making him the only individual in the history of the NBA to be in the top 10 for both scoring (Points Leaders) and assists (Assist Leaders).  You don't get to be in the top 10 of Assist Leaders by playing selfishly.  You get on that list by putting the needs of your teammates above your own.

I like using sports as metaphor for leadership.  I don't think that we can always apply lessons from the sports world to health care, but in this case, I think we can.  As the old adage goes, be careful what you wish for, because you just might get what you wanted.