This isn't a basketball (groan, people, groan) entry, but bear with me for a sec while I use last night's exciting Mavericks v. Heat game to think aloud.
Although I'm rooting for Dallas, there's no question that Miami's Dwyane Wade has played like a superstar. It's too early in D-Wade's career for this conversation, but the nimble young man who is a scoring machine extraordinare and makes it look easy, is already being compared to Michael Jordan.
Watching Mr. Wade's teammates (who are experts in their own right but appear pedestrian and lumbering by comparison), I was struck by the question posed at the Freakonomics blog: Are superstars born or made? According to those in the expert performance movement (believe it or not, there is such a movement), athletic superstars are made. While genetics certainly plays a part, the gurus think the gene pool shouldn't rigidly determine "maximal" performance.
This topic is explored in detail in a research paper about the role of deliberate practice. What I skimmed was provocative and can be applied to those wishing to be "extraordinary" in writing, music, chess, spiritual disciplines and so on. But even if you and yours are merely looking to improve yourselves, there's more than a few kernels of sense in that esoteric paper.
