Sorry Giannis, ‘failure is a stepping stone’ isn’t the real lesson you need to learn

Last week I witnessed a lot of love for NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo in the most unexpected of places: my LinkedIn timeline.

Every now and then, a moment in sport transcends the sport itself, and becomes a mainstream story. In this case, so mainstream, that even non basketball fans were posting about Giannis on a social media platform usually focussed on business and employment opportunities.

For those that missed it, Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks were knocked out of the NBA playoffs, and in the post-match press conference, he was asked if he considered the season a failure.

Exasperated and even a little ‘ticked off’, Antetokounmpo essentially said he did not, highlighted by his now famous quote: “It’s not a failure. It’s steps to success.”

Business leaders, life coaches, and motivational speakers are already frothing over that quote, and I expect to see it many, many times over the coming years.

In a vacuum, it’s a wonderfully positive sentiment and I totally agree with it. If that’s what people take out him saying his team’s season was not a failure, and are sharing it freely, it’s awesome.

Yet I have a slightly different take.

First, some context. Antetokounmpo’s Bucks had the best record in the league this season, and were the number one seed team in their conference. Yet they lost to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat, in what many pundits proclaimed as the biggest upset in NBA history.

The Bucks were the overwhelming favourites not just to win the series, but the favourites to win the whole competition. As such, it was quite the shocking loss.

Though it was more how the Bucks lost that will stick with NBA fans for some time, because, quite frankly, they spectacularly choked. From missing shots, to turning the ball over, to not protecting the ring on an out-of-bounds play with almost no time on the clock, it was a meltdown for the ages.

(Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

The Bucks players and coaching staff made a number of tactical and executional mistakes, that can only be put down to crumbling under pressure. It was stunning and almost sad to watch them unravel. A complete train wreck, caused by nerves.

Antetokounmpo may not like that narrative, but it’s a fact: they failed.

It doesn’t render Antetokounmpo’s quote as useless or not inspiring. At all. However, it does highlight another, more valuable, lesson: the importance of executing under pressure.

At a macro level, it’s a great mantra to consider all setbacks as stepping stones to success. I concur with Antetokounmpo on that. However, it’s only a stepping stone if you learn from the failure.

Antetokounmpo went on to say “There’s no failure in sports. You know, there’s good days, bad days; some days you are able to be successful, some days you’re not. Some days it’s your turn, some days it’s not your turn.”

This is where I started to frown a touch. A “you win some, you lose some” mentality can’t be the lesson here. There’s needs to be some introspection as to why the Bucks lost. Only then is it truly a stepping stone. Otherwise, they’ll just lose again next season.

That sounds more like being bogged in quicksand than a stepping stone.

In this instance, the Bucks and Antetokounmpo need to understand the reason they lost isn’t because it simply wasn’t their day. It wasn’t because they were unlucky. It wasn’t a case of them playing well but still unfortunately losing. They lost because they didn’t keep their cool under pressure.

No doubt, part of that lack of composure came from Antetokounmpo’s poor free-throwing shooting, and poor shooting in general. When your best player can’t be counted on to hit his free throws, it has a cascading negative impact across the whole team, and their tactics.

Not to mention it caused Antetokounmpo to play ‘hot potato’ with the ball at one stage, for fear of getting fouled.

In the press conference, Antetokounmpo asked rhetorically: “Michael Jordan played 15 years, won six championships. The other nine years was a failure?”

While I take his point, firstly, Jordan himself would probably answer ‘yes’ to that question.

What he also left out is that Jordan became maniacal about understanding the reasons his team lost, and came back the following season having worked tirelessly on his weaknesses, be it physical strength, outside shooting, leadership, etc.

I do love Antetokounmpo’s belief that losing isn’t failure, but rather, part of the journey to success. Yet I feel he’s only partially correct. Losing is a failure, but it can be extremely useful. As long as you learn from it.

Far be it from me to give advice to someone far more successful and talented than me, but Antetokounmpo accepting failure is only half the lesson. Learning why he failed is the other half.