This post is inspired by:

“People underestimate their capacity for change. There is never a right time to do a difficult thing. A leader’s job is to help people have vision of their potential.”

Welcome to the mid-week, halfway through. For those of you who know me, or at least pretend you do, you know my love for sports. In particular basketball. If you don’t, read this post and then come back.

Tonight’s topic is potential.

You might say that I am fanatic about basketball, I love every division starting with the middle school travel team and ending with the NBA, I just get all of it. My favorite part besides playing pick-up, is watching the growth of a player, drafted to a new team, that’s where the magic happens. Where the veterans have to go above and beyond, coach the newbie to because the best he/she can be.

We’ve all seen the potential in someone, but it takes someone special to go the extra mile. Take Rondo for example. When he came to the Celtics, he was good, not great yet. It took the experts of Doc Rivers, Ray Pierce, eventually Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to coach Rondo to be one of the best. I remember seeing him in ’07, and said, he’s going to get better as time goes on. Safe to say I was right.

I see the same potential in two players I saw play tonight: Jeff Green (Celtics) and Gordon Hayward (Jazz). I really enjoy watching both of these players because they both have a good rhythm going on.

Hayward I see as being a great asset for the Jazz and cannot wait to see him improve as a player. Because he’s young (22) he has the maximum ability to learn from his past two years in the NBA, and from that missed three at the buzzer against Duke in 2010.. yikes. As a rookie with the Jazz, he averaged 5 points a game, and drastically improved to 11 points this season. I can’t wait to see Hayward improve and reach his absolute potential.

As for Jeff Green, without going into his history, he’s not a rookie, and isn’t close to it, he still has the potential to be great with the Celtics, much like Rondo did back in the day. One thing that I love about Green’s potential is that he has a few years under his belt with Oklahoma City (where he averaged 15 points a game), he knows how the game works. Despite the transitional set back when he came to Boston, Green is picking up, and with the loss of Rondo this season, he’s showing his colors again. Similar to Rondo, Green has the potential to beat out a lot of players, and will accomplish that with the help of Doc and his crew.

With this being said, the Celtics have a lot to look forward to with a game against Charlotte on Saturday before facing the Heat Monday night. This is an important game for three reasons:

A.) I will be attending, and I hate going to a game where we lose

B.) Someone needs to end the Heat’s 20 game streak

C.) I hate Lebron James