Basketball: Creating Your World

"Tell a great story. Tell it as best you can." - Neil Gaiman, MasterClass

Worldbuild. Bridge the gaps between imagination and reality to create a basketball experience.  

Define your world. Begone the Old World of grey lockers, Tuf-skin, tape balls, stale sweat, and rat tails. Welcome chiaroscuro in the New World. Contemporary order wears tights, earrings, and body spray...on the boys. In our perfect world princesses process into panthers. 

Simplicity works. Lombardi's 49/28 Sweep wreaked symphonic havoc on the 1960s NFL. Good guard play still translates. 

Urban Meyer's universe crossed the Rubiconian red line around the OSU football field. When you entered his world, you pledged maximum effort. For top performers to access the weight room, they brought a partner...by rule. Drag others into the top 10 percent. 

Construct constraints and rules. Players avoid pitfalls. Rules make reigns. "Pass away from the defender." "See the help defender." "Draw 2." "Eyes make layups." "Wait, wait, wait for the screen." "Attack the front foot." "Never cut to an occupied post." "Profit from mismatches." 




Beautify your world (see Jayson Tatum highlight at 0:14 of video) with precision and power. 

Make a lasting impression. My middle school world included a volleyball. If we lost sight of the basketball, whoomp, the volleyball magically appeared, a drone strike correcting our oversight. Cruel? We didn't think so. Don't try this at home. But awareness became the standard in our Pavlovian world. 




What inhabits your world? "What would people feel cheated by if they didn't get?" Want to see pressure, transition, halfcourt offense with skilled cutting, passing, and finishing. Don't flimflam fans with disorganization and poor execution. 

Fans deserve a world unpacked with poise and pressure, teamwork and toughness. At least that's the vision. 
 
Lagniappe: shape your magic kingdom.

"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heav'n in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour." 
                - William Blake 

Lagniappe 2: via @BBallImmersion

Dayton turns a flex cut into a cross screen to get a low post the ball at the basket. It is a great add-on to a flex screen play you already run, or as a stand alone play to get the ball to a low post. pic.twitter.com/yFQxfzHTjA

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) February 2, 2019

Dynamic DHO distracts into innovative screening.