The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players [Paperback]

Pat Riley (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 1, 1994

Not only is Pat Riley one of pro basketball's winningest coaches, but his speeches before hundreds of corporations, from ARCO to AT&T to Toyota, have earned him the title of "America's Greatest Motivational Speaker." The Winner Within is his formula for success. It is a book about winning, leadership, mastery, change, and personal growth, based on understanding and controlling the shifting dynamics of a team - any team, whether it is a small company or a giant corporation, a family, a city, or a group of athletes. How does a struggling team form a covenant to work together instead of separately? How does a successful team battle complacency? How does any team overcome the thunderbolts that strike out of the blue? Drawing upon the great teachers and his own experiences in and out of sports, interweaving them with dozens of parallels and stories from business and society, Riley shows how to ride the cycles of team change, balance role players and stars, build solid foundations, break through self-imposed barriers, create change within continuity, and nurture cooperation within competition. "All of my contacts and experiences have proved to me, over and over again, that the complex inner rhythms of teamwork - flows of ambition, power, cooperation, and emotion - are the keys to making dreams come true, " says Riley, and in The Winner Within, he provides the tools, insights, and plan of action to help master those rhythms. It is a book of universal power and scope - a new classic of the literature.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the 1940s, mathematician John von Neumann developed "game theories" utilizing models taken from games of strategies and chance. In the 1980s, basketball coach Riley ( Showtime ) called on these ideas and others to craft his own theories about motivation, selfishness, teamwork, complacency, winning and "choking" that have lead to NBA championships and "Coach of the Decade" honors. Here he outlines his theories, and recounts his successes and infrequent failures with the Lakers and the Knicks in a superb, candid study. Yet Riley also maintains that his concepts work in large and small businesses. He provides vivid examples of how the "winner within" each of us can adapt his ideas to all types of team play, whether in the sports arena, in daily life, or in the marketplace. This book should have wide appeal among sports fans, coaches and people looking for realistic managerial practices useful to non-experts.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Riley, the coach of the New York Knicks and the author of Show Time ( LJ 8/88), combines popular trends in business management, including team-building, with highlights from his two-decade association with professional basketball to produce a readable and inspirational guide for any coach, manager, and team member. Riley provides glimpses of the role played by the emotional side of basketball in winning and losing. He interweaves these experiences, mainly from playoff and championship games, with sound management principles and examples from the business world to illustrate his team-building leadership philosophy. Along the way, he tells some wonderful basketball stories. This book will appeal to a wide audience. Recommended for all public and secondary school libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93.
- Andrea C. Dragon, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425141756
• ISBN-13: 978-0425141755
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Basketball

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Pat Riley would have made one heck of a military general. May 16, 2007

By Joel Munyon

Format:Paperback

He is the ultimate strategist, always thinking ahead and planning every act of inspiration and conversation he might use to channel more out of his players than they were currently giving. In 'The Winner Within', Pat Riley shares his tactics for converting his basketball teams into units with an emphasis on the greater good. The highlights of this book came for me in the following:

* Pat Riley's acceptance of being in the right place at the right time when the Lakers needed a head coach and how preparation added to his own confidence that he could succeed at a high level.

* Riley's view on the strengthening process of one's mentality and how being thrown the wolves can be a very healthy experience.

* Making the LA Lakers a team instead a collection of self-serving, finger-pointing superstars. He mentions tactics he employed on each of his different leaders, including ways to use Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's moody eccentricities as a leadership tool.

* How embracing success hurt the Lakers in the mid-eighties and the ways Riley developed a plan to combat complacency on the team.

* How leaders in any profession must be willing to confront cancerous team members swiftly and thoroughly.

* Riley's methods of using strategic moments of temporary insanity and how this can be highly beneficial to the overall good of the team.

* When to know your time is done and move on, as he did when he left LA for New York in 1990.

* Setting reasonable goals that are both attainable and difficult. For example, his 1992 New York Knicks set the goals of being the most hated team in the league, the most conditioned team in the league, and the most professional team in the league. To a T, they succeeded in meeting all their goals.

Riley is very open and honest in this book. He admits that he knew his Knicks would have zero chance of beating the Bulls in a do-or-die game seven in 1992. He had predicted Jordan would get calls and go to the line, and that Ewing would get into foul trouble quickly. Both of his predictions became eerily true. He admits that you must know your place in the pecking order and follow this format:

#1. From nobody to upstart

#2. From upstart to contender

#3. From contender to winner

#4. From winner to champion

#5. From champion to dynasty

Riley's book is also filled with numerous quotes from histories great minds and leaders. Each quote helps highlight what Riley is trying to emphasize.

I recommend this book to anyone who is or hopes to be a manager in any avenue in life. Riley gives a clear-cut format to achieving goals as a leader.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pat Riley has written an excellent business management book August 16, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

When I am asked by business counterparts to describe my favorite business philosophy, I give them a copy of Mr. Riley's book. When applied to Sports, it obviously works. When applied to business, it profoundly works. We live in a day and age when the word "I" is used to exhaustion. This book allows one to feel honor in teamwork -- in promoting and supporting the efforts of the entire business group, and shows us how personally rewarding the dynamics of being on a great business team can be. Excellent!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Winner Within November 25, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book has made the biggest impact in my ability to produce a successful high school volleyball program. Simply put,I had '0' State Championships before reading it and I have had '6'State Championships(in 8 years) since reading and applying Pat Riley's team philosphy.It is required reading of all team members and required of the seniors to teach it. Coach Riley will bring you through all the challenges a team will face in any sport and supply you with the foundation to build a championship program. In closing,if you are in business and you have not read this book you are losing money...if you are a coach and you have not read this book you are not winning as many games as you could.Tom Turco Head Volleyball Coach Barnstable High School Hyannis Ma.