What I Learned About Passion From A Game Of Basketball With OBJ

By now we’ve all seen how the media has decided to lock in on the NFL’s most polarizing wide receiver, Odell Beckham Jr.
From ridiculously high fines just for refusing to let the opposing side ever get one up on him, to the rematch with Josh Norman that was subject to countless hours of ESPN coverage all day long.
For OBJ, there’s been abnormal amounts of time spent downplaying one of the most important traits one can have: Passion.
Truth is, without passion, there is no such thing as greatness. I’ll tell you a story about when I met Odell Beckham Jr. a few months ago.
I was just walking into the Equinox Sports Club I recently joined not too long before and went upstairs to the outdoor track to start my regular run before getting on the courts.
I finished up my routine on the track and hit the locker room to switch up the sneakers and started shooting around after that.
Maybe 20 minutes later, in come some familiar faces bouncing basketballs on the sideline along with none other than Odell. Long story short, we played a few games of ‘21’ and 4 or 5 games of full court ball.
I learned a couple different things about passion that day that stuck out to me.
First off, the guy is special and everybody knows it. We’ve all seen clips of him playing other sports. We’ve witnessed greatness from him time and time again. He literally can fly.
I saw him do a 360 dunk with the most nonchalant demeanor one could have while bumping Future in his wireless white Beats Sprite Edition headphones. He has worked hard to get to where he is now.
How could one be equally as dominant in their specific domain without the passion? You do anything you want in life and factor in the passion that OBJ has for the sport of football and you got yourself a winning ticket.
Secondly, the competitive fire he has in him is unprecedented.
We just finished holding the court down for the 4th straight game. O’s vision allowed me to score wherever I wanted and it was a great time. Fifth game came up, and they ran away with the lead and there was finally a team that defeated us.
Except OBJ said nah.
The opposing squad hit a flat-footed 3 pointer to win the game, but Odell called travel. It was the funniest thing ever to see everyone respect an obviously wrong call, but it made me realize something interesting: This man was not okay with taking any type of loss, even if it was against some casual ballers like us.
He took me to the side to vent about how there was no way that they could have beat us without pretending they scored more than they really did and all I could think about was this is a championship winning type of spirit.
Odell’s Giants have played 5 games and have lost the most recent 3 games. A lot of people enjoy seeing him struggle, but passion does not lay dormant forever.
I guess all I’m saying is I’ve seen it in person and we’re going to see some extraordinary things coming from this individual and it all ties back to the delight he gets from doing what he truly loves and wants to do.
Apply this to your own personal endeavors and there will be no one in your way. Watch the games during the upcoming weeks, but just don’t say I told you so.