"Play so hard, your coach has to take you out." Jay Bilas in "Toughness" (2009). Players always think they're playing 'hard'. There's a story about "Jordans." A coach told his team to play as though everyone would get new "Air Jordans" if they got a stop.
"Winners always want the ball." - Gene Hackman, in The Replacements
Some players "hide", shrinking from pressure. They don't want the ball under defensive pressure or to defend the capable player. Develop your mental and physical approach to embrace the challenge.
"Movement kills defense."
Fundamental offense uses spacing, cutting, screening, and passing. Ball fakes and shot fakes distort defenses. Paint touches and ball reversal stress defenses and force closeouts. Dribbling into gaps forces two players to cover one. When the ball sticks, nothing good happens.
Bill Russell - 2 NCAA titles. One Olympic gold medal. 11 NBA titles in 13 seasons. 14 titles in 15 seasons. The greatest winner of all time...
"Basketball is sharing." - Phil Jackson Restated, "help your teammates." Great players make everyone around them better. Ask players what they do to make teammates better. Do they relocate to open spaces? Do they screen unselfishly and roll selfishly? Do they block out? Do they find open cutters? Do they take quality shots? Basketball is a game of separation. Better players find and prevent separation.
"The more aggressive team usually wins." Play to win; don't play 'not to lose'. This data is hard to aggregate. Football Outsiders studied long-term trends in aggressive decision-making. Over a twelve-year period, they found Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells among the most aggressive decision makers. But you can find less aggressive decision-makers with success on the list, too (e.g. Joe Gibbs).
