Are You Hungry to Succeed? You Better Finish Your Breakfast!

jay-z-and-lebron-james

PTI is a program on ESPN where two former sports columnists for the Washington Post; Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, debate current popular topics in the world of sports. It’s one of my favorite programs and I watch it every day. Yesterday, one of the topics was about a quote LeBron James made in reference to his team’s (Miami Heat) first round playoff series with the Philadelphia 76ers. At the time James and the Heat were up 3-1 in the series, but they lost the game 4 and were looking to wrap up the series last night. Lebron and the Heat had three days to prepare for game 5. When he was asked if the extra days of preparation would make any difference in his team’s play, James responded saying that game 5 was: “Just about finishing our breakfast”.

On PTI, Wilbon and Kornheiser debated what James meant by that statement, well, they more or less speculated on James’s quote because clearly neither one of them knew for sure what James was talking about. I was amused as I watched and listened to their debate because I knew exactly what James meant by his statement. LeBron used a lyric from what I think is one of Jay-Z’s best songs to reveal to the media his team’s mindset going into game 5.

Here’s the actual song lyric from Jay-Z’s Public Service Announcement (Interlude):

I check cheddar like a food inspector
My homey Strick told me, “Dude, finish your breakfast”
So that’s what I’ma do, take you back to the dude with the Lexus
Fast-forward the jewels and the necklace.
Let me tell you dudes what I do to protect this
Shoot at you actors like movie directors

Being a Jay-Z fan, of course I was familiar with the lyric “finish your breakfast”, but I didn’t know the origin of the quote-I never knew who Strick was and the context in which he made the statement. After I heard that Lebron James used the quote in reference to game 5 vs. the 76ers, I did a little search on Google and found this post on SBNation by Andrew ... Sharp and learned that Strick was a street b-ball player who once played on Jay-Z’s S. Carter streetball team back in ’03.

Check out this video where Strick (who is now deceased) tells where the phrase, “Finish your breakfast” comes from:

Strick told his teammate Smush that he should have “finished his breakfast” after catching his no-look pass right at the basket instead of missing the dunk.

Jay-Z’s song lyrics refers to a statement Strick made to a teammate in a street basketball game…and Lebron James used the quote in reference to his team’s mentality going into game 5 vs. the 76ers.

Public Service Announcement (Interlude) is one of the songs that Jay-Z shares the meaning behind the lyrics in his memoir, Decoded. Here’s what he said about the statement, “Finish your breakfast”:

“My friend Strick uses the phrase “finish your breakfast” as a way of saying that you need to finish your job up strong.”

Remember, the song lyric “finish your breakfast” is from Public Service Announcement (Interlude), which is on Jay-Z’s Black Album. That album was to be his last. So, on the song PSA, Jay-Z made the statement that he was going to finish his rap music career strong with the Black Album (the album was a strong effort, but, as it turns out, it would not be his last).

LeBron James told the media that it was important for his and his team to “finish their breakfast”, to finish up strong the job of closing out the first round series against the 76ers in order to get ready for their heavyweight second round matchup vs. the Celtics.

LeBron used the “finish your breakfast” quote in the same context of its origin when Big Strick said it (the sport of basketball). However, I like the way Jay-Z used a statement made during a street basketball game in reference to a missed opportunity to score, to make an insightful point about focus on Public Service Announcement (Interlude).

In life you have to “finish your breakfast”. You can’t look ahead and get distracted by the unpredictable future. You have to stay focused on whatever task you have at hand and finish strong. Lebron told the media that it was important for him and his teammates not to look ahead to the second round, instead, they had to stay focus on closing out the series against the 76ers.

In sports, we often see teams look ahead to the next game or the next round, lose their focus and lose the game or series that they should have won. This happens in other areas of life as well. Don’t look back but don’t look ahead until you finish what you start.

The phrase, “finish your breakfast” has made a personal impact on me. I think back to various periods in my life when I missed out on opportunities or didn’t see all-the-way-through goals I set out to accomplish. No matter how much adversity I face or even how easy it may seem to accomplish certain goals, I can’t get complacent. I have to continue to give 100% to the very end.

The breakfast phrase is all about combining skill with focus, determination and effort. You can have the talent but do you have the drive? Setting out to “finish your breakfast” is the mentality that drove Jay-Z to make the Black Album a near classic. It’s the mentality that LeBron and his teammates adopted to close out the series against the 76ers last night. If you’re hungry to successfully accomplish any goal that you set in life, you must stay focus and finish strong.

Oh yeah, LeBron James and the rest of the Miami Heat did finish their breakfast last night by closing out their first round series vs. the 76ers. Now we’ll just have to wait and see if the Heat can “finish their lunch” in the second round against the Celtics…

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