Basketball: Fast Five - "You Have Only One Job"

"The Main Thing is the Main Thing." You have only one job. What is it? 

As player or coach, what is your one job? <Pause> "Make your teammates better." 

In the moment, how do you do that? What belongs? 

1. Full engagement. If you're on the bench, see what's happening and offer full-throated support. Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt filmed the bench. You're not fully engaged if you jog run back on defense not seeing the ball, not covering your man, not protecting the basket. It's youth basketball, so you'll still play. If it's high school basketball, you'll sit and I'll show you the film explaining why. 

2. Win this possession. Legacy is a succession of nows. A basketball game sums individual possessions. You don't block out and your player scores the game's first basket. We lose by two. Every play matters. Thinking back on a recent two-point loss, I recall a player giving the front cut for a layup. Another player lost her assignment and a player banked in a three. Six seconds of lapses, five points, defeat. 

3. Clean up before the mess. Do the premortem analysis to avoid the Black Swans. "See what develops" was a Polaroid advertising tag line. 



When we take your snapshot what do we unpack? You weren't in a stance. You weren't in good defensive position. You weren't "shot ready" on the catch. You weren't denying post entry and we couldn't front the post because you didn't pressure the ball. 

4. Know your job. "Doing your job starts with knowing the job." Toughness is a skill. Jay Bilas' Toughness describes how to do the job right. The reference summarizes the book with a series of Mindmaps.

I had a conversation with an opponent's assistant coach before a recent game. She said, "I remember your girl from the All-Star game. I remember how good she was but I remember how nice she was to everyone." People remember how you treat them. 

5. Persist. Here's another Mindmap from Ron Siliko's blog. 

The devil is in the details. But remember that it's about relationships. Public humiliation says more about the bully than the target.  

Lagniappe: "Never forget that professionals built the Titanic and an amateur built the Ark." - Father Brown

Lagniappe 2: via Alan Stein, Jr.