How to Dream-Team-Fight-Win

It has been a Rafflesian Basketball hallmark for the past 30 years (as far back as I have witnessed).

In 1985, my classmate (who went on to become the top player in SGP in our time) told me: "I hate playing against RI. Regardless of the how far behind they are in the game, they always fight 死缠烂打 like they have a chance to win the game."

My friend was from basketball kingpins Anglican High (still their most famous player after all these years) and he was talking about RI, who seldom ventured past the zone competitions in those years.

Fast forward 23 years later, we (RI B Div) find ourselves on the brink of elimination after an embarrasing loss to Chung Cheng, where we showed zero fight, totally "spirit-less" match. Rather than focus on what is past (and responding to anonymous cheap shots over the internet), we'll rather come back and do all the work on the court.

Let me outline what we have to do:

(Dream-Team-Fight-Win is not a cliche or a nice slogan. It's something that I've always lived by when I build teams.)

DREAM - of victories, of championships, of impossibilities, last second steals and game-winning 3 pointers. Some people are always thinking NIGHTMARES, always thinking about what will go wrong, missing easy shots, getting blocked. The DREAMER focuses on where we want to get to. We will win because we refuse to lose.

• Quit thinking of failures and WILL ourselves to prevail.

TEAM - Not PERSONAL agenda, how many minutes did I play, whether I played well, whether I could have done better than my teammate on the court. All these are secondary to team agenda. "No man is bigger than the team".

• Quit thinking of "me" but think "US".

FIGHT - Fight our own battle, not the opponents'. Sometimes it is just victory, sometimes it is fighting for a 50-point margin, sometimes it is minimising our losing margin. It's not about the score, it's about the fight! We may lose the match but we NEVER SURRENDER the fight! We make sure when we leave the court, we are totally exhausted and have nothing in reserve.

• Quit fighting only when the whistle goes, not when you are down 50.

WIN - Anyone who says he is not trying to win is just making excuses before a game. We don't go into a game to LOSE. Winning is but an eventual outcome because we DREAM, TEAM and FIGHT.

• Quit thinking we are going to lose. I refuse to lose.

Are you ready? We have 1 day to get ready. Let's go.