Consider the following hypothetical situation. Le'ts say that you are playing for your high school or club team and you are having your way with the opposing team. Pretty soon you've built an almost embarrasing lead---say 30 points. Now, this is the situation, do you:
1. Begin to feel bad for the other team and ease up a bit so that they can at least score a few baskets?
2. Continue playing hard but maybe start taking outside jumpers while letting up on the defensive pressure in order to make the game more competitive?
3. Never let up for a second, hounding your opponent on defense and punishing him on offense, because the only way for you to win is to do so absolutely and completely, and in your mind only the weak relent, even for a second?
If you answered "3", congratulations. You share a mind-set with the most competitve life-forms on the planet. Basketball is not a game for the tentative. Basketball is almost the equivalent of a "cage fight", and resembling even more like a "street fight". Winner takes all. A lack of confidence labels you with the dreaded word "soft" tattooed on your forehead and those with the killer instinct, like sharks smelling blood, will gravitate to you for the kill.
Call it what you will: killer instinct, competitive fire, hatred of losing or just a desire to be unmerciful. At the end of the day in basketball it is what seperates the men from the boys. It is at once one of the most valuable skills and the hardest to teach. Some call it "neurological freaks," for having a hormonal and neurological makeup than the rest of humanity.
The killer instict manifests itself at all times; during practice, during games during summer workouts, during conversatin and even during sleep in highly competitive dreams. It is something that cannot be turned off, even if you wanted to which the player with this instinct will not want to do at all.
The killer instinct swagger or bravado is one that is not liked by many. It is often ridiculed and pointed to as somehow being unsportsmanlike. Those who do usually end up being fans watching the game and if they are playing, end up being on the loosing end of the game. Put it this way, if my life depended on a bet, I would bet on the killer instinct everytime.
When all is said and done, the legends of the game from every level of play have the killer instinct. It is what seperates them from the average and even the great and catapults them into the stratosphere where only the legends of the game reside.
Hate it or love it, the killer instinct is necessary to have to become the best at this game. It must be hard-wired into the player to truly be elite. Consider it more than just a survival instinct; it is a necessary weapon that must be wielded with no room for sympathy in order to truly succeed at the highly competitive game of basketball.
If you still doubt it, dare to play someone that has the killer instinct and you will soon be a raving fan of this critical and yet so elusive element required to be a true champion.
