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“Fire Doc. Fire Doc”
It was Wednesday, April 18, 2007.
19,580 people were at TD Garden chanting, “Fire Doc. Fire Doc.”
The Boston Celtics, a once-storied franchise, had a run of bad luck. They finished the season with one of the worst records in the NBA — a dismal 24-58.
The crowd was talking about Boston’s Head Coach, Doc Rivers.
How many of you have ever had millions of people rooting for your untimely departure from the workplace?
To turn the tide in the off-season, the franchise traded for a core of superstar players, bringing in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to join Paul Pierce. Even that decision was fraught with uncertainty — all three were superstar leaders with previous interpersonal conflicts.
Doc Rivers knew he faced a monumental task. A task that went beyond drawing up plays and managing minutes. He had to turn individual stars into a unified team.
He needed a philosophy, a guiding principle, that could transform this collection of talent into a cohesive unit.
He told the incoming superstars, “If you want to shoot every time, wrong team. If you wanna do whatever you want, wrong team.”
At pre-season training camp in Rome, Italy, Doc introduced “Ubuntu,” a South African philosophy that embodies the ideas of connection, community and mutual caring for all. The term is often translated as, “I am because we are” or “humanity towards others.”
Desmond Tutu says, “Ubuntu is the essence of being human.” He and Nelson Mandela used Ubuntu as a rallying cry to unite South Africa after Apartheid.
To Doc Rivers, the philosophy meant, “I can’t be all I can be unless you are all you can be. I can never be threatened by you because you’re good, because the better you are, the better I am.”
Doc broke the word down into different parts and chose the rookies to be the perfect messenger. He said, “I’m going to teach you this word, and I need you guys to sell this to the team. You guys are going to get up in front of the team and give a presentation.” They did it with passion, a little bit of humor…and swag.
In the end, due to the success of their presentation, Kevin Garnett said, “Ubuntu on three.”
The season started rolling on, and the team started living ubuntu. Doc had the word written on the locker room walls, and players were expected to live the philosophy both on and off the court.
As the season was starting to roll, personal tragedy struck. Doc’s father, Grady Rivers, passed away. Doc had to leave his team to attend the funeral at a time when they were still finding their footing, still learning to embody ubuntu. During Rivers’ absence, assistant coach Tom Thibodeau stepped up to lead.
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Back home in Chicago with his family, Doc received a call from Kevin Garnett at half-time of that night’s game. Kevin said, “When you’re sad, I’m sad.”
That game came down to the last time-out with 7.1 seconds on the clock. The assistant coach drew up the play, Paul Pierce threw it in, and Ray Allen sank the game-winner from the corner at the buzzer.
The players started celebrating in the middle of the court, and it was all for Doc Rivers. It was all for Ubuntu. Every interview they gave that night, that was all they said: Ubuntu.
When Doc returned, his team was there, unified and ready to win together. That was when Doc knew it was more than just a word; it was actually real. With the strength of Ubuntu propelling them forward, they tore through the regular season with a 66-16 record, a stunning turnaround from the previous season. They played unselfish, team-first basketball — the embodiment of Ubuntu on the court.
And then, on June 17, 2008, their journey reached its pinnacle. The Boston Celtics, a team that had been in turmoil just a year before, emerged as NBA Champions, downing their long-time rivals, The Los Angeles Lakers. They had faced adversity, both on and off the court, but they had overcome. Guided by Ubuntu, they proved that the strength of the team is each individual member and the strength of each member is the team.
Just as with the 2008 Boston Celtics, every organization and creative will experience its share of setbacks and trials. Like the Celtics, we too have faced a challenging period, grappling with market uncertainties and internal changes.
As a creative leader, I invite you to:
1. Ask yourself where are you putting the success of you, the individual, before the success of your team?
2. Come into the present, turning on your mind, and opening up your heart to empathy and connection, “we” vs. “me.”
3. Give culture-building tasks to your rookies, knowing that leadership can come from any level of the organization.
4. Seek out moments of adversity that provide your team resilience and connection. Create intentional gathering spaces around that energy.
5. Celebrate the success of not just the team, but personally appreciate each individual, making them feel valued and recognized.
6. Give gratitude to the people on your team (and customers) who you never often think to thank. Give it in the language they like to receive.
What we can learn from the Celtics and their adoption of the Ubuntu philosophy is that the success of an organization, like a basketball team, is not about a single superstar. It’s about how well we all work together. The philosophy of Ubuntu — “I am because we are” — is a principle that should guide us, too.
