Basketball season offers a renewal of our beliefs, values, and attitudes. Basketball connects us with young people, their families, and our communities. The season is our springtime, time for revitalization.
We mine our communities for the gifted. Everyone has gifts. Charles Barkley said, "what's your NBA talent?" How we use our gifts defines how others see us and how we see ourselves. The graph above illustrates Howard Gardner's "multiple intelligences." Even so, it's incomplete, discounting artistic intelligence and separating rather than blending domains.
As coaches, our dimensions dominate on the left - interpersonal, kinesthetic, linguistic, intrapersonal, and spatial. Of course, we use logical skills to solve problems and mathematics in our analytics.
We've all known or played for coaches with greater or lesser strengths among these. Not many succeed despite obvious deficits in interpersonal skills. Consider Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory. His character continually says the wrong thing. We know similar people.
Stories change lives.They inform epic triumph (The Boys in the Boat), powerful and unforgiving nature (Deep Survival), greed and loss (The Big Short), human psychopathy (Mindhunter), and more. Help players write narratives of achievement, empowerment, and teamwork. Our program graduates succeed in medicine (physician, nurses), teaching, banking, business, and the military.
Move hearts and minds. The Greeks taught ethos (character), logos (logic), and pathos (emotion) as influencers. Model excellence and truth. What energizes a player more than, "I believe in you?"
Language matters. Use rhetorical techniques as Lombardi did. "Winning isn't everything; winning is the only thing." Use humor. George Carlin said, "Swimming isn't a sport; swimming is a way to keep from drowning." Use personal experience. Bill Russell said, "sports reflects American life...the fans bring their prejudices right along with them." Appeal to emotion. "Fight for the girl next to you."
Stay on message. What's our unifying message? How do we share it? Can we add signal and lose noise? Be part of something bigger than yourself.
Speak from the heart. Kevin Eastman says that "you can't fool children, dogs, and basketball players." Grow character and competence. Find ways to empower others through inspiration, perspective, and wisdom. Add value, sell excellence, teamwork, accountability.
Be intentional. Every time we step across that line (onto the court), we send messages. What message do we want to send, need to send, and actually send? Players improve through practice. So do coaches.
Lagniappe: Spurs Execute
Brilliance from the Spurs in the simplicity & effectiveness of this play design & execution. Backdoor cut off a wide post entry. pic.twitter.com/Ci61OcPKW2— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) October 28, 2018
