Building value for the long term takes patience and courage. That can mean ignoring the short-term and taking heat. Others will disagree. Preparation, process, and consistency define us.
Will and Ariel Durant say competition, selection, and reproduction link biology to history in The Lessons of History. Sport agrees. We pick our teams, compete, and grow. For that, we suffer the critics. The Durants share wisdom dating from ancient Rome, "A shallow sophistication prided itself upon its pessimism and cynicism." Did Rome have sports journalism?
Constantly prepare because we never know when what comes next.
What backstops our search for truth? What makes peak performance? What choices and risks impact our returns? What keeps us awake at night? Selecting young players, we have small sample size (tryouts) to identify 'mispriced assets'. For me, potential is truth. Awakening that potential tests us.
Culture nurtures growth. We can't predict the twenty-year success of twelve year-olds. But we can raise the level of every child as a person and player. Brett Ledbetter adopted philosophies from Don Meyer:
- Not real big on goals
- Have the best practice we could everyday
- Become the best team we can be
- No need to put goals that add pressure
Lagniappe:
Hat tip: Scott Peterman
Baseline out of bounds
Timing is everything.
Double Lagniappe: Shell advantage-disadvantage drill for communication (Celtics assistant Micah Shrewsberry and others)
