Michael Kidd-Gilchrist

University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari was the featured speaker at Gov. Matt Bevin’s prayer breakfast on February 16, 2016. The main focus of his message was putting others above yourself.

Calipari told of the time when former UK star Michael Kidd-Gilchrist asked him to start Darius Miller instead of him in a game against Vanderbilt. Miller was struggling, and the starting assignment might give him the confidence and encouragement he needed to play better.

So Calipari started Miller. Kentucky lost that game, but the won the national championship that year, with Miller playing a key role in the title run.

If you want your team to succeed, you have to be a good team player. You have to make sacrifices for the good of the team. You have to be willing to put the welfare of the team ahead of any personal ambitions.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”—Philippians 2:3-4.