LeBron used Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement speech to inspire the Cavs during the finals

After failing to steal one of the first two games of the NBA Finals on the road, the Cleveland Cavaliers came home to a must win situation in game 3. And that is when eventual Finals MVP LeBron James decided to motivate and inspire his teammates with some choice words spoken by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

According to ESPN, James played  a video of Jobs' famous 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University. The speech discusses three stories from the executive's life. The first story dealt with how a fortunate decision to drop out of Reed College allowed Jobs to "drop in" on a calligraphy class, which eventually led years later to features on the Mac that changed the PC industry. The point of the story was that you have to trust that the things you experience in the past that seem random, will mean something in the future.

The second story was about how Jobs' considered himself lucky that he loved what he did, even after being dismissed by the Board of Directors at Apple. The Board had sided with Jobs' hand picked CEO John Scully, leaving the Apple co-founder out of the firm that he and Steve Wozniak built from scratch. At age 30, he decided to start over and found that getting fired by Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to him as it replaced the heaviness of success with the lightness of starting over. This freed him up to have one of the most creative periods of his life, and during the next five years he created Next (which was bought out by Apple) and Pixar. Jobs said, "Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith." He added, "The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

The third story, about making decisions, included this quote from the executive. "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life."

With Jobs' inspirational words ringing in the ears of LeBron James and his teammates, the Cavs won game 3. And despite falling into a 1-3 hole, a deficit that previously was never overcome in the NBA finals, Cleveland won three straight games and the title. LeBron James kept his promise to deliver Cleveland's first championship since 1964.

Ironically, Cavs forward Kevin Love had previously employed a quote from the speech, "Stay hungry, Stay foolish," even writing it on his sneakers. Love took Jobs' comments (taken from the Whole Earth catalog) to mean that instead of worrying about stats he should focus on using his energy for rebounding and defense. And it was Love's rebounding that helped deliver Game 7 to the Cavs.

The 2005 Stanford Commencement speech has become an iconic event in the life of Steve Jobs. You can view it yourself by clicking on the video below.



source: ESPN, Stanford via BGR