Coaching Truths*

*Adapted from my volleyball blog

Every coach develops a philosophy, intentionally, habitually. Mine is imperfect and still evolving, but these are the principles I work on. 

1. Coaches are truth tellers.
Tell players what they need to hear, not simply what they want to hear. Growth begins with honest feedback delivered with respect. The truth does not always land smoothly. 

2. Coaches and players succeed together.
A coach depends on the performance of individual players and the team. The notion that a coach wants a player to fail rarely survives a moment of honest reflection. When players improve, everyone wins.

3. Coaching is a privilege.
Brad Stevens said, "Coaches get more than we give." The opportunity to teach, challenge, and encourage young people is an honor. The greatest rewards often come years later when former players return with gratitude and stories about lessons that lasted. Players craft the memories. 

4. Speak greatness.
There is a profound difference between saying, "You did well, but..." and "You did well, and..." One language closes the conversation. The other builds on success while inviting continued improvement.

5. Correct without discouraging.
John Wooden often placed correction between genuine praise - a "sandwich" of encouragement, instruction, and confidence. Players should leave a conversation believing they can become better.

6. Build with positives.
Research consistently shows that healthy relationships require many more positive interactions than negative ones. Coaching should challenge players and create confidence, hope, and belief.

7. Coach with conviction.
Bob Knight famously observed, "If you listen to the fans in the stands, soon you will be up there sitting next to them." Coaches should listen thoughtfully to others. Decisions ultimately rest on principle, preparation, and judgment.

8. Coaches do have favorites.
Not favorite people - favorite habits. We naturally value players who arrive early, work hard, compete relentlessly, accept coaching, and put the team first. Those behaviors are available to everyone.

9. Never underestimate encouragement.
Few moments are more satisfying than honestly telling a player, "Good job," "Thank you," or, on rare occasions, "You're one of the best I've ever coached." Authentic praise endures.

10. Trust determines opportunity.
Talent matters, but trust determines who is on the floor when the game matters most. Reliability, discipline, and good decisions earn opportunities.

11. Never be a child's last coach.
Every athlete should leave your program believing that sports enriched their life, regardless of playing time or wins and losses.

12. Accept that criticism is inevitable.
No coach earns universal admiration. Leadership demands difficult decisions that cannot satisfy everyone. If you need unconditional approval, you're in the wrong profession.

13. Remember the Prime Directive.
Parents naturally place the well-being, role, recognition, and playing time of their own child ahead of the needs of the team. Coaches must respectfully acknowledge that reality (The Prime Directive) while committing to giving the entire team the best chance to succeed.

14. Protect everyone.
When difficult conversations are necessary, have another adult present whenever possible. Document important discussions and decisions. Keep them private to avoid shame or embarrassment. Transparency protects players, families, and coaches alike.

15. Ask the hard question.
"What does it feel like to be coached by me?"

Players deserve honesty, accountability, respect, and hope. Seek feedback, reflect on methods, and strive to become better teachers and better people. 

Coaching is ultimately about relationships. Wins matter. Championships matter. But years later, players rarely remember every score. They remember how sports challenged them, how coaches treated them, and whether their coach cared about helping them improve as a player and person.

Learn every day. Teach what you know. Leave every player better than you found them.

Lagniappe. Overcome adversity. Women need to be seen and heard. 

 

Basketball - The Daily Laws

Robert Greene is the best selling author of "Mastery" and the "48 Laws of Power." His "Daily Laws" also has adherents. How can we apply them to coaching? What are our "daily laws?"

Here are ten paraphrased recurring ideas from The Daily Laws: 

Extracted and edited

Master your emotions. 

Reacting on impulse hands control to other people, so detachment is a source of power. Note: we can't control much of what happens to us, although we control how we respond. Few good things happen when we lose emotional regulation. Books like "Moby Dick" share the destructive power of emotion. What's the first thing you think of about Woody Hayes? 

Study people, not just their words. 

Motives and insecurities explain behavior better than what people say about themselves. Note: Some say the biggest personalities have the greatest insecurities. Seek contribution not validation. The "never enough" person can lose boundaries when interacting with others. 

Treat learning as an apprenticeship. 

Deep skill comes from years of patient, deliberate practice, not shortcuts. Note: "Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." When we've received mentorship, pay it forward. "10,000 hours" might not be correct, but overnight expertise doesn't happen. 

Find your life's task. 

Your calling shows up in what you were drawn to early. Note: Confucius said, "Do what you love and you don't work a day in your life." That may be an exaggeration. 

Think long-term. 

Strategy means anticipating moves ahead instead of reacting to each. Note: Most of the time, chess is a poor metaphor for basketball. My high school coach, Ellis Lane, assumed a 3-17 program with poor infrastructure and won a top division sectional title in three years. 

 However, with experience we may anticipate actions such as backdoor cuts or Iverson action.

Keep a journal or "commonplace book" about what the game has taught. 

Guard your image. 

Mystery maintains curiosity. Overexposure can dampen influence. Note: Great coaches like Don Meyer, Wooden, and Dean Smith shared lessons freely. Reputation takes years to develop and minutes to destroy. Brand is not the same as character. 

Expect envy and hidden aggression. 

Society loves to watch the mighty fall. Deserve success based upon work ethic and how you treat others. Remember Nassim Taleb's Silver Rule, "Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you." Note: Being an a*hole plays into the desires of others.

 
Stay adaptable. 

Rigid plans break under pressure. Remain flexible and stay open to change tactics. Note: Stay constant with values and standards but open to new ideas.

 
Win with actions, not arguments. 

Demonstration changes minds far more than debating it. Note: for example, a Galton Board shows the spectrum of possibilities from 'random' events.

 
Confront your own shadow. 

Blind spots and self-deception cause the most damage when ignored. Note: "Life is about the management of risk."  

What are our daily laws? Consider to making a bigger list and whittling it to something manageable. 

1. Learn every day. (Kevin Eastman's advice to read for two hours daily is rational for developing expertise.) Basketball is public domain and only constrained by imagination. 

2. Share something great. (Every missive won't be life-changing.)

3. Be a credit giver not a credit taker. (Adam Grant's "Give and Take" provides many examples.) 

4. Consider the first order consequences and beyond. "I wonder..."

5. Seek balance. (Extremes create special, unanticipated risks.)

Lagniappe. "Eyes sell lies." 

Eyes Sell Lies.

Most guards look right where they're about to pass. That's not court vision — that's a gift to the defense. You don't even have to guess what a guard like that is doing. Just watch his eyes.

Great guards do the opposite. They stare one way and go another. They… pic.twitter.com/bOSlYXYtsE

— PGC Basketball - Point Guard College (@PGCbasketball) September 23, 2026

Elementary...and not Easy

Literature provides fertile ground for sport. Hemingway penned The Old Man and the Sea, an epic man versus nature challenge. Daniel Brown wrote The Boys in the Boat, a tapestry of sport and society culminating in the 1936 Olympics.

And Arthur Conan Doyle shared the dry wit and wisdom of Sherlock Holmes. How can Holmes inform basketball and coaching? 

"Elementary, my dear Watson," never appears word-for-word from Holmes.  

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." (The Sign of Four)

The impossible happens with surprising regularity in basketball. 16 seeds beat ones. UMBC defeating Virginia and the Harvard Crimson women beating Stanford in Palo Alto. And UCLA upset by Ivy League upstart Princeton.  

 

 A future ER doctor scored the winning hoop. 

 "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact." (The Boscombe Valley Mystery)

A most frustrating truth happens upon hearing, "Well, everyone knows that" or players say after an egregious mistake, "I know, I know." Learning from others' mistakes makes painless progress.  

"I never guess. It is a shocking habit—destructive to the logical faculty." (The Sign of Four)

Preparation precedes high performance. Process is king. And evaluating a team without seeing their practices writes an incomplete story. 

"Data! Data! Data! I can't make bricks without clay." (A Study in Scarlet)

Video is the truth machine. Analytics are the necessary fuel for objective measure of scoring creation and prevention. Ignoring either ignores the coaching imperative of putting the team in the best position to succeed. 

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere." (The Sign of Four)

Popovich challenged players to "figure it out." Sports coaching and playing is about solving problems in real-time. Winning is valued because it is hard. 

"It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important." (A Case of Identity)

Attention to detail never goes out of style. Detail comes in the 'macro' strategy and the micro, execution at the decision-execution scoring moment. 

"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last." (The Red Circle)

Continuing education and training are the hallmark of excellence. The greats of the game and permanent students. 

"Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary," said he. (The Adventure of the Crooked Man)

Achieving simple is never easy. Dedication to the fundamentals marks great careers like those of Kobe Bryant and Bill Walton, of whom Wooden said that he never tired of practicing footwork. 

 

 

 

More on Navigating Hard Conversations

Hard conversations in coaching are the sounds of inevitability. Do better through study, preparation, and attitude. Some of us feel a need to "win" every conversation or negotiation. That leaves negative residue and our conversation partner must therefore "lose." 

Show empathy (work to understand how the other side feels) and seek perspective through more tools. 

Alison Wood Brooks provides the acronym CALM, not without irony.

C - confirmation

A - admit uncertainty (can lower the temperature)

L - learning

M - making it human

The acronym itself embraces preparation and perspective. 

Confirmation

This represents an effort to get on the same page. These are the facts as best as I can tell. Help me by sharing your understanding. Changes in a player's role or playing time often get seen as either threatening, punitive, or personal. 

Admit Uncertainty 

As coaches, we prioritize what is best for the team as our first objective. It's not always clear. The "good soldier" senior doesn't want to hear that the talented sophomore is 'stealing' their spotlight. We could say, "I know this is hard for you to hear, especially with how hard you've worked. Some changes are coming that affect you, and we'll see how that works out for the team." 

These conversations should be well considered, always held with another adult present, and be private to limit potential for shame or embarrassment.  

Learning

We can't know everything. We can work to understand whether other factors lurk in the background - injury, family, academics, bullying, or any of a hundred possibilities. 

Behavior is data, not always explanation. Sometimes an explanation exists, but exploring for it makes everyone involved uncomfortable. 

Make it Human

Coaches practice our art amidst complexity, with incomplete information, and can't separate feelings from the process. Emotion is often uncontrollable (e.g. sadness), but behavior is. We can be frustrated with another person, but we can't punch them in the face. 

With younger players, often the fact-finding avenue has to run through the parents. Let them know that we are on their family's side and ask whether issues exist that we should know about. Nothing guarantees positive reception, but understanding can only arise through mutual participation.

I'd be kidding readers and myself if "perfect conversations" were my standard. Most parents are reluctant to say, "I hate you and your coaching." That doesn't make them wrong. Certain approaches don't work well for everyone. For example, an aggressive style may not work for a less forceful or physical child. Most parents appreciated a holistic approach. Not all.

Sources:

MasterClass, Chris DeVoss (author Never Split the Difference)

MasterClass, Alison Wood Brooks

Lagniappe. Here's an AI take on Voss's likely tack:

1. Label the emotion before arguing the facts.
   “It seems like you’re frustrated.” “It sounds like you feel you haven’t been given a fair chance.” Voss’s point is that naming emotion tends to reduce its intensity. In coaching, that matters before you explain playing time, role, effort, or behavior.
2. Use calibrated questions.
   Instead of “Why aren’t you communicating?” try: “What’s making it hard for you to communicate right now?” Or, “How do you think your current approach is affecting the team?” These invite reflection without surrendering standards.
3. Get to “that’s right,” not “you’re right.”
   “You’re right” can be a conversation-ending concession. “That’s right” means the player feels accurately understood. Summarize her position so well that she recognizes herself in it before you move to your point.
4. Use an accusation audit.
   Say the negative interpretation out loud before the athlete does: “You may think I’ve already made up my mind,” or, “This may feel like I’m singling you out.” That takes some of the sting out of the objection and shows you are not avoiding the uncomfortable part.
5. Don’t confuse empathy with agreement.
   This may be the most important coaching lesson from Voss. Tactical empathy means understanding the player’s perspective, not endorsing it. You can say, “I understand why you’re disappointed,” and still say, “Your role is not changing right now.”

For a coaching blog, I’d probably distill the whole thing to:

Hear first. Label the emotion. Ask better questions. State the standard. Leave dignity intact.

Basketball - The Assistant Coach

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I invested about 60 percent of my coaching experience as an assistant - which suited me fine. Ralph Labella did a great job as Head Coach. As a private practice physician, I couldn't always guarantee availability, but that wasn't the only issue.

Assistants:

• Don't have final say on team selection
• Don't have primary responsibility for game management
• Aren't the first line of defense for parental complaints

Assistants have different opportunities for teaching, player development, and sometimes individual communication with players.

Head coaches want support, unquestioned loyalty, and assistants who will make their life easier by reaffirming "one band, one sound." 

Conversely, I appreciated having an assistant who could supervise one group during three-on-threes at both ends and who provided another perspective to me and to players. 

What are your top three from Kevin Eastman's list resonate most to you?

1) You're a coach, your not The Coach. 

2) Add value.

3) Help provide solutions not just enumerate problems.

Another assistant, Mark Pearson, provided invaluable perspective. He said that it's unreasonable to expect consistency from young kids. At times they will beat expectations and others they'll underperform. Don't get too high or too low. 

Lagniappe. The "hot hand" exists in certain circumstances, yet not necessarily in games because of so much situational variation. 

Lagniappe 2. Be a giver. 

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"100,000 Whys" - What Makes Sports Work?

Good ideas can arise anywhere. I bought a "children's book," 100,000 Whys: What Makes the World Work, which raised many questions and shared applications that cross domains. 

Here are a few that hold organizations back: 

Gravity - Great players bend the game toward themselves.

Gravity is invisible but undeniable. A dominant scorer, pitcher, or quarterback changes a game. Defenses tilt. Space increases. The player creates advantage without touching the ball. Excellent offense resists the ball's gravity with spacing. Excellent defenses shrink space with gravity to the ball. It's hard to measure. Caitlin Clark's hidden offensive value is the gravity she creates. One liability is that offenses attack her less frictional defense. 

  

Coaching question: Who creates gravity for us?

Heliocentric teams - The team one player orbit is unsustainable.

The heliocentric (Copernican) model works beautifully for the solar system because the Sun has over 99 percent of solar system mass. Build everything around one star and the system destabilizes when that player struggles, gets hurt, or doesn't have it. Or they leave. 

Lesson: stars matter; systems have edges.

Escape velocity - Find enough force to leave the planet.

Incremental gains don't always escape mediocrity. Breaking limiting habits like poor conditioning, bad footwork, or weak communication require  more consistent effort. Fall below and you are stuck in the pack.

Lesson: often incremental improvement isn't enough. "Whatever it takes can be too big an ask. 

Black holes - Some problems eat everything.

Ego, resentment, selfishness, chronic negativity, or unresolved conflicts can dominate organizational gravity. Eventually everything gets pulled toward the problem. Bad management, players who won't share the ball, and obsession about recognition are team killers. 

Lesson: identify destructive forces before the whole team begins orbiting them.

Stars shine because of pressure.

Solar fusion requires enormous pressure. Competition and culture does, too. Pressure doesn't guarantee greatness. Preparation can turn pressure into valuable energy not collapse.

There are different kinds of pressure - the training pressure of a Chris Brickley or Drew Hanlen or the coaching pressure of a Belichick or Kelvin Sampson. 

Lesson: don't eliminate pressure; prepare players to function inside it.

Twinkling stars - Perception distorts reality.

Stars don't actually twinkle; our turbulent atmosphere bends light. Likewise, what we think we see in sport can be distorted by emotion, sample size, reputation, officiating, or one memorable play.

The greatest stars shine most consistently, but even they are impacted by surrounding atmosphere. 

Lesson: distinguish the player from the atmosphere through which you're viewing her.

Momentum - Newtonian motion tends to continue.

Physics and sports momentum aren't identical. Habits have inertia. Good communication spawns more communication. Sloppy possessions can breed more sloppy possessions. Bad shot selection by one player can spread to teammates. Unwillingness to pass can become infectious.

Lesson: sometimes the timeout isn't about strategy; it's about interrupting inertia.

Friction - Destructive and helpful

Without friction, we couldn't run, cut, or stop. Think about crossing a frozen pond. Teams need constructive friction: standards, competition, and honest feedback. 

Coaching is communication, collaboration, and critiques. 

Lesson: the goal isn't a frictionless environment; it's productive friction.

Entropy - Disorder requires no coaching.

Unsupervised locker rooms, practices, possessions, and organizations become disordered and sometimes dysfunctional. Standards silently decay. Attention to detail disappears and performance fades. 

Restore order through culture and leadership. Order requires commitment and buy-in with coaching oversight. 

 Lesson: culture requires continuous energy input.

Orbits - Balance is motion, not stillness.

A planet remains in orbit because of gravity inward while velocity carries it forward. Teams balance competing interests: freedom and structure, confidence and humility, aggression and control.

Confidence balances arrogance and doubt. Sacrifice balances ego and selfishness.  

Lesson: healthy balance isn't static; it needs continuous adjustment.

Nature doesn't negotiate with our preferences. Neither does competition.

Gravity doesn't care about our beliefs. Effort doesn't change escape velocity. A star won't shine because of admirers. Principles of skill, sport-specific IQ, physicality, and psychology are at work.

Recruiting a "smarter coach" or a more athletic player don't guarantee a turnaround. Understanding the forces and processes that impact principles give us a better chance to succeed. 

Lagniappe. Bring more specifics to coaching. Play hard or play smart are true but don't give direction. 

This is so good from Sean McVay.

Notice the clear, “specific” feedback.
The positive approach.
The detail.

And the quote of the day…

“Never ending self-improvement.” https://t.co/1Lj6rPsw50

— Greg Berge (@GregBerge) August 27, 2026

Coaching Taglines - What Are Ours?

Just as cinema offers a host of memorable lines, so does coaching. Let's review some and offer our own. Coaches look to create advantage, just as Butch Cassidy did in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

1. Bill Belichick - “Do your job.”
   Maybe the cleanest coaching analogue to Joe Friday's “Just the facts.” He preached role clarity, preparation, and accountability. An identity statement for what the Patriots became. 
2. John Wooden - “Be quick, but don’t hurry.”
   Separate urgency from panic. It sounds contradictory but preparation reduces anxiety. 
3. Dean Smith - “Play hard. Play smart. Play together.”
   This meets the 'six word story' challenge immortalized by, "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn." Smith described it as Carolina’s philosophy “in a nutshell.”
4. Mike Krzyzewski - “Next play.”
   Duke shorthand for playing present. Don’t celebrate, don’t sulk, move on and win the next possession. It's a verbal, emotional reset. 
5. Nick Saban - “Keep the main thing the main thing.”
   Ignore the noise. Focus on preparation and execution. He built "The Process" on his experience with Belichick. 
6. Bill Parcells - “You are what your record says you are.”
   Pure Parcells: no excuses, no sentimentality. Few lines capture the speaker as well. 
7. Gregg Popovich (in a timeout) - “I've got nothing for you...figure it out.”
   Particularly good because it embodies player ownership. Great coaches help players and teams become real-time problem solvers.
8. Pete Carroll - “Win Forever.”
   Carroll turned a theme into organizational vocabulary and a book. “Always compete” may be a better tagline; “Win Forever” is his overarching philosophy
9. Bill Walsh - “The score takes care of itself.”
   Perhaps more book title than sideline slogan, "The Score" became shorthand for Walsh’s standards and execution precede outcomes. "Champions behave like champions before they are champions."
10. Pete Carril - “The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong.” Carril used his father's advice to explain to players why they could compete against more celebrated athletes and teams. 

Here were some I used, remembering Picasso's "Good artists borrow; great artists steal."

My last words pregame, "Are we going to stand around here all day, or are we going to fight?" (from Kingsman)

During practice, "The ball is gold." (from my coach, Ellis Lane)

Explaining philosophy. "Basketball is a game of possessions. Win this possession." 

Simplify. "Be good at what we do a lot." 

In game adjustment - "Let's do more of what is working and less of what isn't." 

Lagniappe. Discipline precedes confidence. Know that you've earned competence via character. 

pic.twitter.com/m1FPlGmBs3

— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi) September 19, 2026

Lessons from the Melrose Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet

Sport teaches many lessons, regardless of specific sport. The biennial Hall of Fame induction shared timeless lessons for our benefit.

Last night's speeches can help us better athletes, coaches, parents, and people.

One posthumous inductee's family and a teammate shared his values:

Gratitude 

Bryan Cook consistently recognized his good fortune and appreciation for his teammates and coaches at Melrose, Exeter, and Harvard. 

Leadership 

In addition to always being an exceptional scorer, he was always the captain, from eighth grade to his senior year in college. 

Passion and Mentoring

Kevin Persons explained how much he enjoyed many sports, but his coach redirected him to track. He explained how he was alway best at "freeze tag" and how success in childhood play helped him become a champion in high school and an All-American at Williams. 

Culture

Sarah McGowan was a volleyball state champion and Gatorade Player of the Year finalist. When she went to the local volleyball camp she found a welcoming culture that made her gravitate to the sport. 

She thanked her coach, Scott Celli, for his encouragement and her teammates for helping her to succeed. 

Storytelling

She also thanked local sports media for 'exceptional storytelling' that helped capture the experience for the players and community. 

Love of Sport

Griffin Barriss spoke representing the 2017 Distance Medley Relay team. He explained how running created a lifelong love of sport whether running in high school or the Boston Marathon. He noted that "practice in our sport is called punishment in other sports." 

Feeling Alive

Coach Kevin Allison (Track, Cross-Country) explained how athletes had the privilege of gathering in electric atmospheres with crowds, music, and hundreds or thousands of other athletes. He thought that nothing made you "feel as alive" as those moments in sport. 

Values in Sport

Adam Caffey spoke for the 2017 football team (13-0) that captured a State Championship. He addressed commitment, culture, and sacrifice and the role of parents, coaches, and sport in building the men they are today. 

Nobody plays high school sports with the idea that they'll be inducted into a local Hall of Fame. In team sports they play for each other, for the joy of the game, and the love of competition. 

Lagniappe. What does your workout look like? Is it about looking good or creating the player that helps a team win? 

I see many kids working out like a PRO when theres no need for it right now. Hella dribbles, hella isolation stuff like your Luka or James harden at the top of the key. Aint nobody playing like that. Work on catch & shoot. Catch & drive. Catch & pass & get it back. It TRANSLATES!

— Isaiah Thomas (@isaiahthomas) September 16, 2026

Basketball - "Shut Up and Dribble" - The Controversy That Will Never Disappear

Sport is a microcosm of life. In theory, management and players have freedom of speech. In practice, neither has freedom from consequences.

Build a Foundation 

Educate ourselves. A visceral (gut) feeling about a topic is not necessarily an informed one. As difficult as it sounds, learn about both sides of an argument to avoid "confirmation bias" - reinforcing our beliefs with like-minded opinions.

Define Beliefs, Attitudes, and Values 

Beliefs, attitudes, and values are foundations for our personal philosophy. Recognize that beliefs are not 'truth'. We can believe the earth is flat or that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago, but neither mesh with the evidence. 

We could establish our chief value that "cats shall inherit the earth." Most people might consider that an odd choice. Establishing that as a core value is personal. 

Actions and Consequences

Everyone recognizes that 'freedom of speech' is not absolute. Speech can carry legal consequences for threats, defamation, fraud, incitement, and certain other narrowly defined categories. 

Current controversies surrounding music personalities and the Houston Texans and Kyrie Irving show the complexity and emotion enveloping all disciplines and geopolitics. 

Practical Applications

Cognitive dissonance explains the difficulty and psychological discomfort in holding opposing viewpoints simultaneously. Maturity includes tolerating the discomfort of mixed judgments. You can admire the player and reject the opinion. You can dislike the speaker and concede the point.

Stoicism reminds us that we are not obligated to hold an opinion on everything. 

Likewise, we are not obligated to share our opinion, recognizing opinions spark controversy.

A team, employer, sponsor, fan, teammate, or consumer may react to speech in ways the Constitution does not prohibit. An employer may consider our words a "fireable offense" or a governing body might pull our license. 

Legal constraints such as libel and slander also might constrain our communication. It is noteworthy that political speech from some elected officials has protection. 

Cancel Culture 

"Cancel culture" applies when organizations or individuals are boycotted or shunned because of their publicly held beliefs. It's people imposing social or economic consequences on speech they consider unacceptable.

"I'm done with him" or "Bye, Felicia." 

Decades ago, Toshiba sold super-secret submarine quieting technology to the Soviet Union. I chose not to buy Toshiba products, not exactly a company-breaker.

Wealthy organizations and basketball superstars often choose not to comment on politics not wanting their "ox to be gored." That's rational to avoid offending fans with different beliefs, attitudes, and values. It's probably more the norm than the exception. 

No Easy Answer

One question is "why should we care about celebrity opinion?" A talking head says, "Shut up and dribble" and we can agree, disagree, or choose to ignore both the source and the target.

Each of us sets boundaries for our attitudes, choices, and effort. Many of us learn "children should be seen and not heard" and later "never discuss religion and politics." Life shows us that both are violated consistently. 

Before speaking, ask three questions:

• Do I know enough?
• Does this need to be said?
• Am I prepared to own the consequences?

Know what you believe and why you believe it. Choose our words and opinions carefully and be prepared to stand behind them. 

Lagniappe. Learning to overcome adversity is both essential and a process.  

Nick Saban shares an universal truth about resilience and overcoming adversity.

"You gotta have resiliency. You gotta be able to overcome adversity."

"There can be no great victories in life unless you can overcome adversity."

"You gotta be able to overcome it."

The problem?… pic.twitter.com/RmVRWuw4aw

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) September 11, 2026