To excel, we must be ENGAGED and EFFECTIVE. I can be engaged but ineffective if I disrespect a player and don't ADD VALUE. In our basketball laboratory, we choose to make a difference...or we just punch the clock. Practice is our clinic with continuous implementation of core values.
- Win their hearts and minds. We've all had coaches that we trusted, whom we believed cared about us. And we've probably had coaches about whom we felt quite differently. Don Meyer remarked, "they don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care." Do my players listen to understand or to respond?
- "You are responsible for your paycheck." - Kevin Eastman Kobe Bryant got paid because he took 100,000 jumpshots in a hundred "days off". Larry Bird took 500 free throws BEFORE school. Full days on the Chicago playgrounds made Isiah Thomas an 'overnight' success. Our players write their narrative and carve out a role according to their process. How badly do you want to succeed at your profession or avocation?
- "Basketball is sharing." - Phil Jackson What have you done to make your teammates better? Did you ensure they knew their homework assignment and got to class on time? "It's not my job." The best people help others go further. There's an old story about a selfish player at practice. The coach had him prepare to inbound the ball...and told his teammates to leave the court. "Now, play."
- Become a better version of yourself. Am I becoming a better version of myself? It's far more productive to work to reinvent ourselves each day than to compare ourselves to others. What am I reading (right now, Bob Cousy's Killer Instinct), what am I studying (last night, contemporary management of cirrhosis). How am I investing my time?
- Give players their voice. Players need to find solutions to the problems they encounter in their lives. They need guidance not oppression. Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer would say that they are in our orbit...needing centering without eliminating momentum or lacking grounding (gravity) and flying off in all directions. We need to remember, "it's not about me."
