Basketball: What You Can Learn from a Drag Queen

RuPaul, star of Drag Race, shares success stories in his MasterClass. 

At twenty-eight, RuPaul hit bottom and was sleeping on his sister's couch. A friend gave him a plane ticket to New York and told him to "remember who you are." He returned to New York, resumed his career as a dancer and was named "Queen of New York" within a year. He realized that he had to fight for his place in show business.

Most of us never had the silver spoon. We know fighting for our place, academically, athletically, economically, and socially.   

"Love your losses." Everyone fails. Mickey Mantle struck out 1713 times. But he had 536 homers, was a twenty time All-Star, and helped author seven World Series championships. "It's what you do when you're not striking out that counts." 

"Failure is an essential part of self-discovery." Failure sticks to us when we don't learn from our mistakes. Failure challenges us to become stronger and more resilient. 

"Failure represents an opportunity to improve." Failure taught RuPaul what not to do and what works for him. He wasn't selected at an audition, but the casting director remembered him and that turned into another gig. Not winning a role but leaving an impression is a recurrent theme in the entertainment industry. Not starting shouldn't stop determined players. "It's not who starts but who finishes." 

RuPaul says, "be of service to humankind...that will sustain you." As coaches, serve our players, preparing paths for them to succeed.  

Another theme of RuPaul's is mentoring. Steve Kerr preaches mindset, mentors, and culture. Usher urges aspiring performers to study their mentor's mentors. For him, that meant James Brown and Gene Kelly. My high school coach studied Coach Wooden and shared the Pyramid of Success with us in the locker room in the early 1970s. Dean Smith's mentor was Dr. Phog Allen, whom I haven't studied enough. Allen has been called "The Father of Basketball Coaching." 

Learn from luminaries in many fields. 

Summary:

- Remember who you are.
- Fight for your place.
- Love your losses.
- Failure is an opportunity to grow. 
- Find mentors that work for you. 

Lagniappe: Perimeter defense




Don Kelbick shares his philosophy of perimeter defense including the "head snap" method of denying the back cut. I learned (and have mostly taught) opening up to the ball as an alternative technique. I don't think "opening" is better, just easier to learn, and allows continuous vision of the ball (but not the player). 

Lagniappe 2: from Bob Knight, The Power of Negative Thinking

"Winning with talent isn’t necessarily the way to go about things. There are some things you can do and some things you can’t do. Elimination of mistakes is more important than the will to win."

Lagniappe 3: Do the right thing not the most popular thing.