FOOTPRINTS….

Eventually they wash away. The tide comes in and just like that there’s no trace they ever existed. The mark you left just seconds ago has vanished never to return. Every day thousands of people leave this earth and their footprints fade away with them, never to be seen again.

Most people see footprints as a temporary mark of something that once was. We live in a “what have you done lately” world. People tend to forget anything that isn’t current. To leave your mark nowadays you have to make an impact. Don’t believe me? Do you remember who won the Super Bowl four years ago? How about the first cast in the show Survivor? Exactly. Washed away from shore never to return.

My father left footprints over 30 years ago that haven’t disappeared yet. This past summer he just had a street named after him thirty years after his death. People talked to me during the ceremony like we were in a time machine. Bobby Thomas’s words still had the same impact on the adults today that were kids back then. It made me pose the question to myself, how will I be remembered?

This question never infiltrated my mind when I was in college. I didn’t care how I was remembered as long as I accomplished my dream of playing professional basketball. My thinking was I have a goal and that’s the only thing that matters. If I’m on a basketball court every day how would you see my footprints anyway? It wasn’t until the direction of my life changed that I started thinking more about the footprints I would leave long after I’m gone.

Footprints also possess another meaning to me. When I was little I would always try to track my older brothers’ footprints in the snow. I would follow his path while we walked around so I could see which way he went. By following him I would avoid stepping in deep snow or the more dangerous yellow snow. Your footprints can serve as a guide for someone else. Which eventually might help another person and so on and so on.

A couple of nights ago I was talking to one of my former players about the good old days. Well not really the good old days because he played for me during my first two years as a coach. That was when I still thought like a player and believed in Navy Seal type discipline. I recently asked him to help coach in our youth basketball program. He’s one of the hardest workers that I’ve ever coached, he’s passionate about the game, and above almost all of those great attributes he cares. I talked about how I could see him doing this every day of his life. I read in a great book (Oola) that there are two types of jobs, a day job and a dream job. Working with kid’s every day and coaching basketball would be his dream job. He is now the fourth former player of mine on my coaching staff. I’m leaving footprints for him to follow, and hopefully he does the same for someone else.