Chasing Greatness Blog

With Jalen Brunson’s Team-First Mindset, The New York Knicks Just May Have Won The Off-Season

Don Yaeger July 16, 2024

So, you consider yourself a team player, do you? Well, would you be willing to leave money on the table so that your team could offer more to somebody else?…

The Backstory We Often Forget When We Watch The Olympics

Don Yaeger July 1, 2024

The dog days of summer are approaching and normally that would mean looking forward to some downtime in sports television viewership. But every four years, the arrival of the Olympic…

College World Series Champ Tennessee Rounds The Bases With A Ritual For All Seasons

Don Yaeger June 25, 2024

In 2020, the Tennessee Volunteers baseball team debuted the “pink daddy hat” that was awarded to players as they rounded the bases after hitting a home run. In 2022, the…

This Was The Champion Boston Celtics’ Season Of Lessons Learned And Applied

Don Yaeger June 18, 2024

Since Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown joined forces on the Boston Celtics in 2017, they have been the stars on teams that have impressed fans and foes alike. But they…

Dynasty Builder Jerry West Was Never Quite Zeke From Cabin Creek

Don Yaeger June 14, 2024

The NBA has posted a rare interview with Jerry West from 1968. The video is black and white and, compared with today, low production. That’s what makes it powerful. In…

The Celtics’ Porzingis Has Nothing But Love (And A Big Chip) For The Dallas Mavs

Don Yaeger June 10, 2024

One of the great Boston Celtics teams not to have won an NBA championship yet is looking as though it may finally raise the eighteenth banner in Boston’s TD Garden,…

Dave Butler, Co-CEO Of Dimensional Fund Advisors, Wants Characters With Character

Don Yaeger June 5, 2024

Some years ago, when Dave Butler played with Steve Kerr on the US Men’s National Basketball Team, the two players were talking about Kerr’s college team, the University of Arizona,…

Target CEO (and Head “Coach”) Brian Cornell Focuses On Retail Fundamentals

Don Yaeger May 29, 2024

Brian Cornell grew up playing football, baseball, basketball and track, and like any sports lover grew up as an avid reader of Sports Illustrated. It was on the cover of…

GuideWell CEO Pat Geraghty: Success Should Never Come Down To One Play

Don Yaeger May 22, 2024

During Pat Geraghty’s senior year in high school, his football team was playing in the league championship game. With seconds left on the clock, they were down 14-13 to a…

Netflix Co-Founder And Former CEO Marc Randolph Says, “Be At The Right Place”

Don Yaeger May 17, 2024

Once, in a high school baseball game, Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph was playing second base. When the ball was hit toward the first baseman, Randolph did what he practiced every…

Nikola Jokic Became An Elite Player By Focusing On One Overlooked Muscle

Don Yaeger May 14, 2024

If you walked into a gym and saw Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets working out, you would say, “He’s gotta be a basketball player.” Jokic is nearly 7-feet tall,…

Showing Up For The Big Game Should Definitely Be A Thing

Don Yaeger May 8, 2024

If you’ve been watching the NBA playoffs, you have undoubtedly seen the ads featuring players who repeat the tag line, “It’s not a thing.” The “thing” in question refers to…

H&R Block Leader Jeff Jones Wants His Team To Check In And Check Out

Don Yaeger May 3, 2024

H&R Block President and CEO Jeff Jones was a catcher on the baseball team at Fork Union Military Academy and then went on to the University of Dayton, but the…

Team Chemistry Is The Sixth Man For The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Players

Don Yaeger April 30, 2024

At the end of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s game two playoff win over the New Orleans Pelicans, a TV reporter prepared to interview the star of the game, OKC’s guard…

To Compare LeBron James With Michael Jordan, Look Past The Numbers

Don Yaeger April 26, 2024

A new NBA Playoffs is upon us, and with it comes the opportunity to watch the ageless LeBron James compete not only for another championship with the Los Angeles Lakers…

President Of Aflac U.S. Virgil Miller Always Swings The Bat

Don Yaeger April 24, 2024

Imagine being a kid playing baseball in a little league All Star Game, and all the fans are cheering. But there’s one fan in particular who you really want to…

When A Legendary Leader Leaves Your Legendary Program, What Do You Learn?

Don Yaeger April 15, 2024

Imagine . . . in the short space of just four months, two of the most coveted coaching jobs in college sports at two iconic programs became vacant. Can you…

South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley Puts The Finishing Touch On Greatness

Don Yaeger April 8, 2024

This was supposed to be Caitlin Clark’s weekend, the moment when women’s college basketball’s greatest scorer was rewarded for making believers of new fans and confirming to current fans that…

Four Leadership Lessons From The NCAA Men’s Final Four

Don Yaeger April 1, 2024

The student bodies at four universities—Purdue, NC State, Alabama and UCONN—won’t have gotten much sleep these past couple of weeks, what with all the NCAA basketball their teams have been…

Oakland University Believed In Themselves And Shook Up March Madness

Don Yaeger March 25, 2024

Barely a handful of games have been played in this version of March Madness before it was guaranteed that your bracket was busted. And the biggest balloon popper of them…

Always Know The Score. Kent State Loses The Mind Game

Don Yaeger March 20, 2024

The NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament’s March Madness is upon us, and participants in office pools everywhere in this great land of ours have submitted their brackets and are preparing…

Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter Shows There’s Always Time To Listen

Don Yaeger March 13, 2024

The scene was a familiar one. A time-out was called and Purdue University’s men’s basketball Head Coach Matt Painter gathered his troops to outline a play late in a game…

Deion Sanders Turns Time On Set Into A Mentoring Moment With Nick Saban

Don Yaeger March 6, 2024

What do you do when you’re one of the greatest football players of all time and you find yourself sitting next to one of the greatest football coaches of all…

Ex-NFL Journeyman Dan Orlovsky Knows Exactly What The Combine Doesn’t Get

Don Yaeger March 4, 2024

This last week we watched the NFL Combine, the annual job fair that draws college football players to interviews wearing shorts and t-shirts and carrying gym bags rather than briefcases.…

Chasing Greatness Blog

Weekly leadership lessons learned from the world of sports.

With Jalen Brunson’s Team-First Mindset, The New York Knicks Just May Have Won The Off-Season

The Backstory We Often Forget When We Watch The Olympics

College World Series Champ Tennessee Rounds The Bases With A Ritual For All Seasons

This Was The Champion Boston Celtics’ Season Of Lessons Learned And Applied

Dynasty Builder Jerry West Was Never Quite Zeke From Cabin Creek

The Celtics’ Porzingis Has Nothing But Love (And A Big Chip) For The Dallas Mavs

Dave Butler, Co-CEO Of Dimensional Fund Advisors, Wants Characters With Character

Target CEO (and Head “Coach”) Brian Cornell Focuses On Retail Fundamentals

GuideWell CEO Pat Geraghty: Success Should Never Come Down To One Play

Netflix Co-Founder And Former CEO Marc Randolph Says, “Be At The Right Place”

Nikola Jokic Became An Elite Player By Focusing On One Overlooked Muscle

Showing Up For The Big Game Should Definitely Be A Thing

H&R Block Leader Jeff Jones Wants His Team To Check In And Check Out

Team Chemistry Is The Sixth Man For The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Players

To Compare LeBron James With Michael Jordan, Look Past The Numbers

President Of Aflac U.S. Virgil Miller Always Swings The Bat

When A Legendary Leader Leaves Your Legendary Program, What Do You Learn?

South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley Puts The Finishing Touch On Greatness

Four Leadership Lessons From The NCAA Men’s Final Four

Oakland University Believed In Themselves And Shook Up March Madness

Always Know The Score. Kent State Loses The Mind Game

Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter Shows There’s Always Time To Listen

Deion Sanders Turns Time On Set Into A Mentoring Moment With Nick Saban

Ex-NFL Journeyman Dan Orlovsky Knows Exactly What The Combine Doesn’t Get

Contact Don Yaeger