Total Pageviews

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Basketball: The Contract, The Crucible, The Clock...Plot and Stakes for Success

Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons) says that a thriller includes the CONTRACT, the CRUCIBLE, and the TICKING CLOCK

Brown says, "I know something you don't know and I promise that if you turn the page, I'm going to tell you." 

Define this for basketball to create a meaningful experience:

The Contract: "This is what we do." Clarify and ingrain our philosophy.
The Crucible: "This is how we do it." Here is our culture, our way. 
The Clock: "This is who we are." Find your identity and shape your response to game and time pressure. 

Without a philosophy, teams wander in a sea of information. Without strong culture, individual needs overtake team goals. Without identity, teams lack consistency. 

Next season starts by redesigning today. Design on the opening offseason practice continues. 



Find a habit to strengthen today. Study. Read. Write. Exercise. Meditate. Share. 

Raise the stakes. High stakes belong to history, love stories, horror, adventure, and sports. Investigative journalist Bob Woodward tells writers to probe for truth. "Get close to the bone."  

History: Control of the west flows through Empire of the Summer Moon, the technological rise (the horse) and fall (Colt 45) of the Comanches. 
Love story: Pygmalion (the play) adapts a Greek myth about transformation and later becomes the movie, My Fair Lady. 
Horror: The Exorcist reveals the struggle for the soul between good and evil. 
Adventure: Amundsen's planning and execution defeats Scott's in a race to the South Pole
Sports: Colleges wage war for One-and-Done players. The Final Four in 2019 lacked a single One-and-Done player. Stakes or mistakes? 



Promise solutions. I want readers who turn the page day after day to find inspiration and solutions to our coaching challenges. 

Lagniappe 1: via @BBallImmersion... stagger backdraft
Lagniappe 2: Here are my favorite three books for exceptional content and prose.

The Boys in the Boat, Daniel Brown
Deep Survival, Laurence Gonzales
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle, Madeleine Blais