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Saturday, January 11, 2025

Basketball - What Bequest Would You Leave to a Young Coach?

What "best advice" have mentors given you throughout your life? If you could bequeath coaching advice to a young coach, what would it be? 

1. Build relationships. Establish trust with coaches and players. Help the players build trust with each other. Small rivalries can grow to unfathomable proportions. 

2. Never stop learning. Nobody has the franchise on continuing education. Everyone can learn from Coach Don Meyer's "three notebook" policy. One was for basketball, another was for general information, and a third was a gratitude notebook that he gave to his wife at the end of the year. 

3. Be a problem solver not just a critic. Most of us have no issues solving other people's problems when we struggle with our own. Solutions require listening, openness, and nonjudgmental attitudes. 

4. Find mentors. Mentoring lineages go back thousands of years. Socrates taught Plato, who taught Aristotle, who mentored Alexander the Great. Among the worst mistakes coaches can make is believing they know-it-all. Kevin Eastman advises coaches to become a "learn-it-all" not a "know-it-all." 

5. Share. My favorite basketball quote is Phil Jackson's "basketball is sharing." Basketball is "open source." There is no secret sauce. Share. 

6. Learn player development. Even if you're literal the "Recruiting King" (think Nick Saban), you still need to develop players. "Every day is player development day." Consider adding "every day is role development day." Teach players to know and to embrace their roles. For example, if you don't have a reliable inbounder, it will bite you on your backside eventually. 

7. Fundamentals beat strategy. Coach Popovich says, "technique beats tactics." Lesson one from Sahil Bloom is, "you'll achieve much more by being consistently reliable than by being occasionally extraordinary." 

8. Keep a rethinking scorecard. Professor Adam Grant wrote, "Think Again." The ability to change our mind is strength not weakness. The "arrogant jerk" you can't stand could become a trusted confidant. 

9. "Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." - Werner Herzog  "The differences between the person we are today and whom we become in five years are  the people we meet and the books we read." Read widely and find elements from other domains to bring into our lives. 

10.Seek work-life balance. Life is about finding balance. Courage balances recklessness and doubt. Without balance, many careers have the potential to lead to self-destruction. Avoid that path. 

Lagniappe. Teach. Get help. 

Lagniappe 2. Can you trust the player with bad body language? 

Lagniappe 3. You earn your minutes. 

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