Jamy Bechler

Providing Insights on Leadership and Success. Coach Bechler is a John Maxwell Leadership Team Member.

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Aug 04 2022

The Greatest Champion

photo credit: Nonstop Sports (YouTube)

“Bill Russell was the greatest champion in all of team sports.” (Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner)

When the great baseball Hall of Famer and African American icon Jackie Robinson died in 1972, his widow called Boston Celtics player Bill Russell and asked him to be a pallbearer at her husband’s funeral.

Click here to listen to the 6-minute version of this article on the “Success is a Choice” podcast network.

When asked why, she responded that Russell had been Jackie Robinson’s favorite athlete.

All of the pallbearers were Jackie’s former teammates with the Brooklyn Dodgers, except for Bill Russell.

It’s likely that Bill Russell was Jackie Robinson’s favorite athlete – not because he was so athletic or talented – but because he was a champion, both on and off the playing court.

Many consider Bill Russell one of the greatest teammates of all time.

[Read more…]

Written by Jamy Bechler · Categorized: Leadership, Podcast Episodes, Sports, Teams & Organizations · Tagged: Adam Silver, Bill Russell, Boston Celtics, champion, Championships, Hard Work, Jackie Robinson, John Wooden, kareem abdul-jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Legacy, mental toughness, mentality, MLK, Most Valuable Player, Motivational Quotes, NBA, NCAA, Olympics, Racial Issues, rebounding, Red Auerbach, San Francisco, Social Justic, Teamwork, Tim Duncan, Win the Day, winning

Oct 09 2019

Episode 128: Swen Nater, Only player to lead ABA & NBA in Rebounding

Swen Nater won two NCAA Championships as a basketball player for the legendary John Wooden at UCLA. He would become the first player to ever be a NBA first round draft choice despite never starting a college game. During the 1973-74 season, Swen would earn ABA Rookie of the Year status. He would go on to play professional basketball for 12 years for the Lakers, Clippers, Bucks, Spurs, and Nets. He is the only player in basketball history to lead the ABA and the NBA in rebounding. At the 2004 NBA All-Star game, he was officially named “Mr. Clipper”. After retiring as a player, he would go on to help start the Christian Heritage athletic department and lead the men’s basketball team to a National Championship. Today, he is a highly sought-after motivational speaker and executive of a Fortune 500 company. 

In today’s episode, we discuss:
  • His unbelievable story of going from an orphanage to finding his parents on an American TV show.
  • Playing for the legendary coach John Wooden
  • What made him such a great rebounder
  • The journey of not playing basketball in high school to being a bench player in college to being selected as a first-round draft pick in the NBA
  • … and so much more!!!

[Read more…]

Written by Jamy Bechler · Categorized: Podcast Episodes, Sports · Tagged: Bill Walton, championship rebounding, dwane casey, John Wooden, kareem abdul-jabbar, Leadership, Leadership Development, Leadership Training, NCAA, Overcoming Adversity, rebounding, Sue Enquist, UCLA

Apr 18 2019

Comebacks Are Fun

Winning is fun. Winning when it is not expected of you might be even more fun. Most of us love a good comeback story and recently, we were treated to a couple of good stories from the world of sports.

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Written by Jamy Bechler · Categorized: Personal Growth, Sports · Tagged: Failure, NCAA Tournament, Perseverance, rebounding, Responding, Tiger Woods, Tim Hall, UMBC, Virginia, Virginia Cavaliers

Aug 19 2017

Episode 011: CoachTube Founder Wade Floyd

Wade Floyd is the founder of CoachTube.com, which is the world’s #1 marketplace for online sports education.  CoachTube empowers coaches to create courses online by providing tools, technical support and guidance, so they can quickly and easily get their content online. There are thousands of online courses at CoachTube.com for all sports. Both coaches and athletes can benefit from these on-demand online videos.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

  • Ideas for starting a business and being an entrepreneur
  • Why CoachTube fills a strong need that coaches and athletes have
  • How to better build your business

[Read more…]

Written by Jamy Bechler · Categorized: Podcast Episodes · Tagged: Abilene Christian University, Business Building, calendly, championship rebounding, Coaching, entrepreneur, Google, Jamy Bechler, need to, online course, Podcast, podcast episode, professional development, rebounding, Success is a Choice, trello, videos, wade floyd

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