"You don't get what you want. You get what you believe." - Oprah Winfrey
"Everyone knows that." Well, everyone doesn't.
Coaches' keen sense of the obvious frequently escapes the eye of the neophyte or young player. Experience via play, reading, film study, training, and the teaching by losses change the player's hardware and software.
1. Valuable players impact the game through their ability to make everyone around them better. Players who measure their worth solely via the scorebook devalue TEAM. Forget Night at the Opera basketball...me, me, me.
2. Meaning is no monolith. Impact on the team transcends "minutes". You make the team better when you support teammates (including academically), communicate, practice hard, focus, and consistently put the welfare of teammates first.
3. We don't go "back to basics." Never abandon them. Attention to fundamentals - footwork, balance, maneuvering speed - is attention to process. "Technique beats tactics."
4. Be detail-oriented. Basketball IQ doesn't always converge with grades. Intelligent play means street smarts, the difference between know that and KNOW HOW.
5. Understand situations. During four quarters, the end of each quarter offers a potential six point swing (plus or minus three at each end). A bad decision at one end has changed many games. In a sectional championship game, a team led 15-7 with ten seconds left in the first period. A bad shot turned into a transition three and a possible double digit advantage became a momentum-changing five point lead. This sparked a run by the trailing team and a painful loss.
6. Space and time inform many sports. Chuck Daly immortalized, "spacing is offense and offense is spacing." Passes must be on time and on target. Excellent teams have noticeable spacing excellence. Spacing stresses defenses and opens dribble penetration, cutting, and passing lanes.
7. Possession and possessions. Success on this possession matters. More possession (e.g. by rebounding and turnover differential) and better quality possessions define success and failure.
8. "There is no My Turn." Every player must understand what a good shot is for her and for each of her teammates. The quickest path for team improvement traverses better shot selection. The quality of shots directly reflects the quality of cutting and passing.
9. "Do well what you do a lot." Charles Barkley asks, "what is your NBA skill?" Many players carve out careers by doing fewer actions exceptionally well. Terms like 3 and D, stretch 4, rim protector, point forward, or distributor reflect their reality. Be great in your role. Every champion finds ways to wear down his opponent.
10. Don't cut corners. When the UCONN women warmup with laps around the court, nobody cuts corners. You can't skip steps. Spurs' Coach Gregg Popovich says, "pound the rock." If it takes 100 hits to break the rock, keep pounding.
Lagniappe: The race may go to the most persistent not the fastest. 61 year-old ultramarathoner Cliff Young won the Sydney to Melbourne 543 mile race not by running faster but by running while others slept.
"You just gotta keep going."
