Bill Nelson

The 2011 NBA Playoff Finals series are now well underway. The Dallas Mavericks taking on the Miami Heat. It shouldn't be too long before the 2011 Champions are crowned.

The result could highlight one of the most significant examples of teamwork we have seen for a long time.

But before we get into that, let me say that although I did work in the Australian National Basketball league for 16 years, my knowledge of Basketball tactics is very limited. So my discussion today is not based around the technical aspects (the x's and o's if you like) of a basketball team and how it works.

My discussion is based around the functionality of what makes a great team.

So let us commence with my usual starting point on teamwork........The winning is in the picking.

Miami decided and successfully recruited Chris Bosh and Lebron James to come join Dwayne Wade at the Miami Heat in 2011. Instantaneously everyone had an opinion as to what this would mean.

But for me, the winning for Miami wasn't just going to be determined by the fact that each of these guys could play basketball; that detail had already been well and truly determined by how each of them had played in the their respective teams prior to season 2011.

For me, the winning was going to be determined by how well these three could play together.
How prepared they were to work together to make the team function properly.

Some call it chemistry.

Some would be right in one sense, but maybe not so in another.

A chemistry in one sense, within a basketball team or any team for that matter, could be simply determined by position, role or skill. And by each of them fulfilling their respective roles through a specific position within the team, an element of positional chemistry is developed. This is the same for all teams, Miami being no different.

But this isn't where I saw the real test for the Miami Heat.

The real test for mine was the test of attitudinal chemistry.

Were each of these three going to give up on some of their own personal desires to allow the team to be better?

Was their a preparedness to leave their ego at the door so as to allow what needs to get done be done?

Was there going to be a decision to put the needs of the team before personal wants?

This was going to be the greatest test for the big three.

Simply put.....Were these three prepared to play for something greater than themselves?

Although still very much a work in progress, to some extent that question seems to have been answered.

To the uneducated, like myself, there seems to be a simple rule of thumb within this team.

Doesn't matter who it is, or for what reasons, if someone is hot then they become the person who gets the ball in their hand the most.

Slowly slowly, game by game, you can begin to see that how and why this team does what it does; they are determined by the need of the team and by the type of game that is being played, and then who is in the best place to fulfil that need.

This is in stark contrast to the usual who-does-what, where-and-why usually being determined by reputation, ego, pecking order and pay check.

(Some might argue this has changed a little through the playoffs with Lebron coming into his own in the fourth quarter of a lot of their playoff games).

I have often said that teamwork is all about individual attitude. That you can talk about team all you want, but the only way a group of people become a team is when each individual makes a conscious decision that they are going to contribute whatever they can, whenever they can, to make the team all that it can be.

And once again it could be strongly argued that these three gentleman have decided that they are going to put the team first. That the needs of the team are going to come before their own individual needs.

Like them or hate them the Miami Heat have just given us all the chance to witness a 36 week class in team dynamics.

Will they be the 2011 NBA champions?

Will the Miami Heat go onto bigger and better things?

Will they go onto being one of the teams that are heralded throughout history for not only what they achieve but how they achieved it?

The Journey Continues!