Originally Posted by
hustleplays
But it's clear that for Coach heart is much more and different than trying hard, intense effort and wanting to win. It's more and different than just "playing with heart." At a high level, heart is a very special quality that entails a fierce competitiveness, a refuse to lose attitude, a fiery passion for playing the game and for playing the game at its best -- all the time, and not buckling -- at all -- under pressure. It's having and showing steel.
Heart and leadership are very connected. Heart is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for leadership. It's so important for Coach because, as he says, every player can sense on the court who has heart and every great team needs heart. The heart is the glue and catalyst of the fist. Coach wrote the book a while back, before Nolan. But for one of our very best, recent examples of a player with great heart, Nolan's the man.