Stephen Bardo (stephenbardo.com) first gained fame as a starter on the 1988-1989 “Flyin’ Illini” team that reached the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four. Throughout the ‘90s, he played in the NBA, CBA and overseas. He currently serves as a commentator for FOX Sports 1 basketball coverage and presents his Point Guard Vision leadership training to youth and collegiate athletes.

In this video, Stephen explains how youth athletes can learn life lessons in accountability through sports. He says there is no better place than sports to create an analogy between the player-coach relationship and the future employee-supervisor relationship that student-athletes eventually face.

Because of the love of sport, student-athletes may strive to "hit the lines" on sprints and rotate into position on defense to help a teammate, gradually growing into accountability in a team effort in a way that helps them internalize accountability as a trait throughout the rest of their lives. A great coach, Stephen explains, will make that connection explicitly apparent to student-athletes and tie ideas of accountability back into classroom performance.