There's no secret to how the most successful athletes get to where they are. They work hard. Discipline is what turns talent into ability. Yes, talent, opportunity, perhaps luck, all help on their journey to success, but in the end, athletes who make it to the elite level have all done the hard work required.

Professional sport as we know it does not exist without fans.  If no one cared, there would be no market for tickets, t-shirts, news, blogs, and those awesome thundersticks.

It dawns on players (in most cases) that spending all their downtime watching movies, shopping at the mall, playing video games, going to the mall, playing cards, hanging out at the mall or just driving around isn't necessarily the most productive use of one's time.  As one player once noted, 'There really are only so many times you can go to the mall or watch Sports Center."