Impostor Syndrome Within the Miami Heat

Duncan Robinson is likely to play a major role for the Miami Heat as they take on the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight — and his story is one we can all draw from.

It’s a story of perseverance, resilience and overcoming what so many of us in leadership positions battle: Impostor syndrome.

Robinson, an undrafted guard who began his college career at Division III Williams College, had an impressive summer league with Miami last year. He shot 48 percent from 3-point range while in the G-League in 2018-19. And yet, when he met with Coach Erik Spoelstra before this season, he told him he still didn’t feel like he belonged on an NBA court.

“That's when we talked about impostor syndrome," Robinson recently told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne. "I brought it up to him, like, 'I don't know if you ever heard of it.'

"And he goes, 'Heard of it? I lived it.'"

Impostor syndrome is the mentality that we don’t really belong where we are, that we’re unqualified and have essentially fooled a bunch of people to rise to our current positions.

According to a recent article in the International Journal of Behavioral Science, roughly 70 percent of people have experienced it in their lifetimes.

Spoelstra explained to Robinson that he, too, suffered from impostor syndrome when he took over a team with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh at 40 years old as a non-NBA playing coach.

Even after two championships, it took him until the summer of 2014 — when James was no longer on the roster — to get over it.

"I had a big, six-week reflection on my purpose in this profession," Spoelstra told ESPN. "And I really connected with this idea that my purpose was just to serve and help guys like Duncan achieve their dreams and to be able to help our organization develop teams and a culture that we believe in.

"That was the biggest transformation for me. It's a compass. And after that, I didn't give it a thought about the impostor syndrome."

To get Robinson to believe in himself, the Heat showed him game tape and statistical evidence to reinforce just how important he would be to their team. They also put him through some grueling conditioning drills, believing that he could draw confidence from his hard work.

When we start questioning whether we belong and whether we have what it takes, we need to fall back on some of our successes. We need to work just a little bit harder. We need to have a little bit of irrational confidence. And we need to remember why we do what we do.

There are people who believe in us. We are qualified. We do have the necessary ingredients. No one else can bring what we bring. In fact, sometimes others actually do know best and have a better view of our value than we do.

Having doubt is perfectly natural. We just can’t become paralyzed by it.

Let’s be bold. Let’s be brave. And let’s be willing to shoot some long 3s — even if they’re contested.

And if we somehow airball two in a row, let’s not hesitate about shooting it a third time.

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