It seem like everyone that has been able to catch The Last Dance docu-series has been able to come away with a nugget or two ranging from insight into the great Michael Jordan, to championship team dynamics.
Nick Saban is on that list of folks who gained valuable insight from the hit series that has captivated the country the last few Sundays as it came came to its conclusion last night. When one of the greatest coaches of all time is learning from some of the top players of all time, you know there's always room for continual growth, regardless of where you are in your journey.
Courtesy of the official Alabama Football twitter account, Saban shared a lesson he took away from the show after watching Jordan's explanation of what it takes to be great and his unique drive to win. The clip, where Jordan gets emotional, has been shared hundreds of thousands of time on social media and might be the show's most popular clip.
"This, sort of defines the ultimate competitor. The ultimate sacrifice that you have to make to win. The ultimate sacrifice that you have to make to be a leader."
"It probably explains what we have tried to do here [at Alabama], with this program, by what we try to bring out in our players, which is to be the best version of themselves as people, as students, and as players and get people to aspire to be the very best that they can be. That is all we have ever tried to do here."
"I have never heard anyone articulate it like Michael Jordan did, because of the competitor that he was."
Back in 2018, Saban brought Kobe Bryant to the football facility to shares some words of wisdom with the Tide. Kobe's message to the team centered around the idea that your behaviors have to match your goals, and if they don't then you need to edit your behaviors accordingly. There's a clip of that in the video of Kobe talking to the team included in the tweet as well.
In the video, Saban explains how he took lessons from two of basketball's greatest - both Jordan and Kobe - and has tried to infuse them into how they do things at Alabama.