Basketball: Evaluating the Workout

"Never confuse activity with achievement." - Coach John Wooden

Success requires more than unrequired work. Before preparation or study, ask what elements fit productive workouts. 

1) Player factors

• Focus/engagement (attitude)
• Rest 
• Health

There are times, "stale basketball," where less is more. If a player/team is overworked, overtired, or hurting, backing off is more useful than repetition. There is anecdotal use of "hand dynamometers" to measure grip strength that correlate with physical and mental fatigue. 

As I write, normally I 'pull' about 85 pounds. I'm wrestling with back problems and only pulled 65-66 today. 

2) Task details 

• Clarity of task (understanding) ... see Lagniappe
• Appropriateness (e.g. shooting range appropriate to player)
• Competitive where possible (Measurement/trending) 

3) Supervision (coaching, self-coaching, video?) 

• Is supervision necessary? Everyone needs coaching. "Surgical mastery is about familiarity and judgment."
• Attention to detail (do it right and do it over)
• Feedback (on technique, alternatives, effort... "speaking greatness")

4) Learning strategies

• Pomodoro technique 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off
• Spaced repetition (break up a practice activity over multiple sessions)
• Self-testing - do I understand the material, internalized not memorized?

5) Intent* (What am I working to accomplish?)

• Specific skill building (e.g. perimeter shooting, one dribble moves)
• Athleticism (quickness, explosiveness, strength)
• Reading/reacting (e.g. pick-and-roll)

6) Leaving the Comfort Zone (5%)

• Emergency shots (fallaways, flyaways, late shot clock)
• Game winners (for cleaners)

Kevin Eastman discussed Ray Allen's approach to "fixing his shot." It wasn't all about getting in the gym and taking as many shots as possible. 

• Evaluate shot selection.
• Correct his feet. Allen would work on getting into shooting position, without a ball
• Only the, add volume shooting

In the future, what changes are each of us considering to improve practice? 

• More scrimmaging (including offense-defense-offense 3 possession games)
• More 2 v 2 and 3 v 3
• More individual (ball containment) and team defense 
• The problem? Limited practice time means robbing Pietra to pay Paula.
• Can't make up the 1/3rd of practice devoted to shooting. 

Lagniappe: Coach Mason Waters shares another great breakdown, showing how Damian Lillard keeps it simple to beat guys off the dribble. 

Remember Kevin Eastman concepts, "it's a shoulders game" and "low man wins." Lillard blows by the big after changing speeds and attacking the hip. 

Basketball: Keep Coaching Simple with Core Values and Openness to Ideas

"Winning isn't everything; winning is the only thing." - Vince Lombardi

Coaches take players where they can't go alone with structure, teaching, and discipline. 

"What" depends on our why. Professional sports are businesses, paid entertainment. Winning is part of the equation, but "successful" teams made money without full commitment to winning. That's an anathema for fans.

Be intentional. The sine qua non depends on the level. 

• Don't sacrifice fifth graders on the altar of victory.
• An elementary school player is not a failure because of non-conformance to your idea of athletic excellence. 
• No coach has the right to judge a kid a loser. 

Teach and learn. Read, study, and share. Players see our example. 

Clarify philosophy, identity, and culture. This is how we play, who we are, and how we practice and work through shared sacrifice. 

Results have reasons. 

Model sportsmanship. Be humble in victory and gracious in defeat. 

Show compassion. Georgetown lost the 1982 NCAA basketball championship as Fred Brown inexplicably passed to James Worthy; Coach John Thompson consoled Brown. 

Build a legacy. Players take pride in learning the game from a favorite coach. And coaches relish seeing players succeed in sport and life. 

Stick to your principles. My task is developing young players. 

• Winning is a byproduct of development, not the primary end state.
• Emphasize your strengths.
• Improve at what we do a lot.
• It has to be about more than basketball. 
• Stamp out mistakes. Bad possessions give games away. 

Converting a post player into a wing player takes time. But it's happening. 

Lagniappe: like chess, basketball sets up endless possibilities. Marcin Klozinski shares:

#XsOs I liked from NBA Bubble [Restart] [E19]

📋#HoustonRockets | #NBA

13 #SetPlays from #OneMission :
📎5 Out Options *4
📎Pistol Dive *2
📎Ram Decoy *2
📎Down Screens - 2 Men Game
📎Stagger Screen Options *2
📎Rodman Action [Off Reb]
📎SOB #MkXsOs #WholeNewGame pic.twitter.com/2h979OzQtB

— Marcin Klozinski (@MKlozinski) September 29, 2020

Basketball: Ten Tips from Recent Posts

Every reader should leave with new information or unanswered questions for further inquiry. Here are two handfuls of recent blog highlights.

1. Speed layups. 

Lithuania layups are a good practice and pre-game volume layup drill. 

2. "Quarterback layups." I give the ballhandler the slight advantage requiring the defender to have both feet outside the three-point line. 

3. "Sixteen" shooting drill

Goal: Score 16 Shots, multiple ways to play. 

• Score one at each spot, out and in (like golf). You can time yourself, count the number of shots needed to score 16, or score 16 within a defined time limit (e.g. 90 seconds). 
• Must make 2 consecutive at each spot. How many shots are required or complete the course (16 shots) within 90 seconds? Without a rebounder, you have to hustle. 

4. NO PLAYS OFF. Playing hard is a skill.  Reward players for doing the right things in practice. 

5. "And then some." What separates us is extra effort, unrequired work, lagniappe. The talented teammate who always prepares and brings something special to the program. I shared Gerald Stokes' success formula, Q + A = C. Quality of service plus attitude = compensation. 

Kevin Eastman reads a minimum of two hours a day. Steve Forbes reads at least fifty pages. 

6. Rookie Grant Williams gets NBA playoff minutes. How? 

7. Grant Williams' advice to young players, "Be on the shoulder of the coach." 

8. Don Kelbick turns 1-4 high action into the flex. 

9. An "Elbow Get" brings the opposite post across to screen for his counterpart at the elbow. 

 

10. Summary: 

- Invest our time, don't spend it.
- Multitasking makes mediocrity.
- Managing time is self-management.
- "Be here now." 

- "Manage one ITEM. Do it now." 

Lagniappe: (something extra)

TOUGHNESS

COACHABILITY

HARD WORK

COMMUNICATION

LEADERSHIP

Nice guys do finish first. Bam. Hat tip: Coach Kohlheim. 

Basketball: Core Practice Drills (Part Two)

 

Everyone wants better players. Our best option is development. 

Today, I'll share Part Two of core development drills. 

Shell drill works both offense and defense. Start with basic shell with perimeter passing to practice on and off-ball positioning. Expand the drill to include cutting, screening, dribble handoffs, and dribble attacks. Shell advantage-disadvantage calls a player out of defense to touch the center circle and get back into the play. Others must talk and scramble. 

Manmaker pressures the ball full court, 3 v 3. You must stay in your lane and with each catch you are allowed one dribble. Learn to pivot out of trouble and go high and low. 

Kevin Eastman's "Dog Drill" tests ball containment and dribbling in a confined lane versus pressure. We struggled with ball containment last season. 

Transition 3 v 5 calls two defenders out to touch the baseline and recover into play. 

Speed layups for warm-up via the Lithuania team at the #JonesCup. I like it because most of warm-up IMO is about getting shots as we shoot more than we get layups in games...the other part is a short burst of energy & enthusiasm so this would take care of that. pic.twitter.com/UQXy7w1Ozg

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) July 29, 2018

Lithuania layups are a good practice and pre-game volume layup drill. 

Racehorse works passing, catching, sprinting, conditioning and finishing (layups). Change passers each minute. 

3 by 3 by 3 continuous shooting. Three balls are at each end. First shooters start in the middle. Shooters run towards one end and the passer calls their name and passes to them at the level of the foul line. They catch, shoot, and rebound and become the passer. After passing, they run to the other end to become the shooter again. Demanding conditioning drill that we usually run for five minutes. 

Kentucky layups...two sets of two minutes. Track makes. Speed dribble for layups. Group should make a minimum of 50. 

"One More" pass and follow. Coach and players call out "one more." Finish with a basket attack and you can vary the finishes. 

Argentina passing drill, another passing/conditioning drill. Argentina ran it full court and player would fight NOT to be in the corners. 

28 Special or "Gauntlet" with 2 vs 8 advance the ball. One dribble per catch. The goal is to advance the full court and score. Tough! 

Argentina drill explained. 

Hoiberg speed transition drill. Easier to visualize it. 

These are just some ideas to work into practice. I hope they help your players. Many are hard for younger players but that's my world. 

Basketball: Core Practice Drills for Player Development

If we knew the "best way" to practice, everyone would do it. We constantly evolve by editing and refining practice. We "overemphasize" offense, because we can't compete against good teams and not score. High school teams can't compete without scorers. 

We condition within drills and/or scrimmaging. It's hard for me to teach "game simulation" then spend time on suicides. Great conditioning punishes our opponents not us. Most of these drills are competitive against either teammates or ourselves. 

Ultimately, what "belongs" in practice reflects the short and long-term needs of our team. But a few points to re-emphasize:

1) Do well what we do a lot.

2) Excel at a few things. 

3) Win symmetry - PnR offense/defense, half-court offense/defense, transition. Be able to apply and defeat pressure defense. 

I select some practice activities from this spreadsheet. A reader asked me to elaborate; here is part one. Some are self-explanatory, like 5 vs 7 full court play without the dribble. Bounce passes are allowed. 

QB layups has the ballhandler snatch the ball from the defender and attack the basket with one dribble. It can be physical...too physical for outdoor practice.  

Elbow to sideline (above) combines movement, conditioning, and shooting. Players usual get about ten shots over a minute. Rebounders should make crisp passes to the shooting pocket. Challenge them to make as many as possible. 

Bradleys are an excellent warmup drill and are part of Villanova's "Get 50." Each player keeps the ball high and hop, hop into the shot. It's about balance, timing, and consistent release. 

Form shooting is another self-evident activity. Shoot to swish each shot. 

The Arik Shivek drill (FIBA) emphasizes cutting, passing, and finishing. Players cycle through a give-and-go layup, jump shot, and finish against a closeout. 

30 Buckets gives each team of three shooters the obligation to make at least thirty shots over three minutes. By high school, it should be at least 40. On a make, you rotate to a new spot. 

Beat the Pro, a.k.a. Bill Bradley, requires a player to make 11 shots before missing 4 (score one on a make and "Bill" scores 3 on your miss). An advanced version requires 15 makes before 2 misses. 

Spurs Shooting has four teams of three competing with each other. Win by getting each shooter making five first or a team making eight in a row. 

Rollouts are another good practice and pre-game drill. It starts with a closeout into 3 on 3. Defense goes to offense and the next three come out on defense. I got this drill from a successful Indiana high school coach on vacation in Turks and Caicos. 

Zig-Zag One-on-One. This is from the late Bert Hammel. It's a zig-zag dribble into a give-and-go one-on-one with aggressive defense. 

Lagniappe: Kirby Schepp emphasizes a dramatic increase in scoring through paint touches and ball reversal. John Leonzo illustrates this via the WNBA and offensive phases. 

Great example of seamless flow through multiple phases of offense here from Seattle

One phase ends as the other begins, zero pauses occur

Transition | Half Court Offense | Post Feed + Reaction pic.twitter.com/rxjf3TbvHr

— John Leonzo (@John_Leonzo) August 25, 2020

Basketball Friday: One Drill, Concepts, One play. What Makes Offensive Efficiency?

"You have to love coaching, not just winning." - Kevin Eastman 

Kevin Eastman is a lifelong student of basketball and leadership. And he's a spectacular teacher and sharer in demand on the corporate lecture circuit. 

Here are a few Eastman quotes from a Basketball Immersion podcast: 

Building relationships is critical to earning trust, loyalty, and influence. Reciprocity (quid pro quo, tit for tat) is a key to getting and maintaining influence.

Drill: "16" Shooting Drill

Goal: Score 16 Shots, multiple ways to play. 

• Score one at each spot, out and in (like golf). You can time yourself, count the number of shots needed to score 16, or score 16 within a defined time limit (e.g. 90 seconds). 
• Must make 2 consecutive at each spot. How many shots are required or complete the course (16 shots) within 90 seconds? Without a rebounder, you have to hustle. 

Concepts: What is offensive efficiency? Offensive efficiency means scoring the most points possible through a combination of executing high quality possessions and not turning the ball over. 

1) Dean Oliver described "individual offensive rating is the number of points produced by a player per hundred total individual possessions. In other words, 'How many points is a player likely to generate when he tries?'"

The formula is ghastly, ice cream headache-worthy and available here...incorporating makes, misses, assists, offensive rebounding, and turnovers. 

For our purpose, efficiency occurs with shotmaking, assists, and avoiding turnovers. 

NBA 2020 Playoffs, minimum 75 field goal attempts. Danny Green is the leader. 

2) Doris Burke regularly reminds us that the highest field goal percentage occurs within the first eight seconds of the shot clock. That makes intuitive sense, because the reason to shoot early is a high quality chance. This isn't Goldilocks where the middle is the sweet spot. The tables are sorted by EFG%. Bad shooters can still take early shot clock shots. 

First, from 22-18 seconds remaining, top ten teams in the playoffs. The Clippers were the kings of early shot clock EFG%. 

Last, final four seconds of the shot clock. Big drop off for most teams. 

EFG% (shotmaking and quality of shot)

3) How do players improve efficiency? 

• Take better shots.
• Pass better to create better quality shots.
• Get offensive rebounds. 
• Value the ball. Turnovers are killers. 

A combined rating system for one game helps account for non-scoring contributions, both offensively and defensively. Missing a lot of shots and turnovers are the bad performance markers. 

Play: Louisville Basketball, 1-4 Elevator (would adapt well to a Horns set) from Louisville basketball newsletter. 

Lagniappe: SLOB, fake DHO into Hammer

Love this end-game Hammer set from Washington State and Kyle Smith. Great keeper; awesome design for the inbounder pic.twitter.com/EbmtUilZLG

— Adam Spinella (@Spinella14) September 21, 2020

Lagniappe 2: Sniper?  

WANT TO BE A BETTER SHOOTER?

✅take a lot of shots (on air & contested)
✅make a lot of shots
✅practice at game speed
✅take shots you will shoot in a game
✅focus on form/technique
✅master footwork
✅love the process#GetBetterEveryDay #GetBetterBasketballShootingTips pic.twitter.com/SqfF8ZZqfa

— Coach DeMarco, EdD (@Coach_DeMarco) September 21, 2020

Lagniappe 3: Mason Waters teaches screens using Jokic as his model. Coach Waters' videos are outstanding. 

 

 

Basketball: "That's Gonna Leave a Mark"

"Leave an impression." - Samuel L. Jackson, MasterClass

The game leaves marks on us, legal and otherwise. 

We also leave marks on players. How we connect with them defines us. Semi Ojeleye shared thoughts on Brad Stevens, "For me it just means that he's actually what he talks about. He talks about family, he talks about being together, he talks about having each others' backs in more than just basketball, and this was a great moment for him to show the kind of character that he has."

Reviewing a game or activity, find enduring lessons. Coaching careers have indelible marks to share. 

Zoe made the best EYE CONTACT of any player I ever met. She came from a basketball family. 

Bella comforted a player who had taken responsibility for a loss. "We win together and we lose together." 

Lily always brings a smile to practice and games. It's a KID'S GAME. "Never be a child's last coach." 

Cecilia took NO PLAYS OFF. Playing hard is a skill.  

Players BUILD A LEGACY as the first to arrive and the last to leave. You told her something once and she had it in her toolbox. I look forward to hearing from Ensign Joyce after she graduates from Annapolis next summer.  

The smallest players can bring the most TOUGHNESS. "Don't get screened." Shannon could go over a screen like nobody I've ever seen. 

Too many players to count brought GRATITUDE to the court. 

Every team needs a GLUE GUY. Meg wasn't tall, quick, or highly skilled but she made the right plays at the right time and got on the floor in crunch time. 

Brittany didn't care about scoring, but cared about stops. She was the best HELP DEFENDER I've coached, able to dig, double, help, recover, and rotate.  

Outstanding players are students of the game. Samantha filled her NOTEBOOK and has four D1 scholarship offers entering her junior year. 

We help players make memories and they make ours, too. 

Lagniappe: Louisville Men's Basketball Newsletter

Lagniappe 2: One of the stories I remember best from this summer came from a coach whose player missed two free throws at the end of regulation, sending the game into overtime. His team put together a great overtime, because they didn't want that player to feel responsible for a loss. 

Basketball: 8 Takeaways from "Tuesday Morning Coaching" and Quadruple Lagniappe

Reading expands our world if we absorb the concepts. The four books on my workspace now are:

Tuesday Morning Coaching* (David Cottrell)

Team of Teams (Stanley McChrystal)

Sapiens (Yuval Harari)

Contagious* (Jonah Berger)

*Rereading

Reboot our lives. Let's summarize the first, using his catchphrases and applications:

1. "No matter what." Focus. Restate the top priority, the 'raison d'etre' the MUST.  Take care of your family, finish the master's thesis, whatever. Show up on time and don't be a jerk.

Hooplication: Mindfulness improves attention, as early as in elementary school children. 

2. "And then some." What separates us is extra effort, unrequired work, lagniappe. The talented teammate who always prepares and brings something special to the program. I shared Gerald Stokes' success formula, Q + A = C. Quality of service plus attitude = compensation.

Hooplication: Study more video. 

3. "Consider it done." When I was in the Navy, 'the Boss,' CAPT Tom Walsh would tell us, "handle it." "Right away, Boss." Do it now, do it right. Report back. Thomas Crane's The Heart of Coaching shares be "performance-focused, feedback-rich" to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. 

Hooplication: "Act with integrity, no matter what." 

4. "Above all else." Establish your non-negotiables, your absolutes. That might mean getting to all of your children's games, recitals, or PTO meetings. "Complacency is the root of mediocrity."

Hooplication: Too many rules will make them impossible to follow. 

5. "From now on." Change is neither good nor bad. Change is what we make it. From now on, I'll stick to my morning routine, or eat healthy foods, exercise, get enough sleep. From now on, I'll hold that "hot letter" or email for twenty-four hours before I send it. FROM NOW ON commits to be better.

From now on addresses problem solving: 

- what is the problem?

- what is the impact?

- what is the desired end-state?

- why does the problem exist?

- what are a range of solutions? 

Hooplication: "Always do your best." 

6. "See it, feel it, trust it, do it." Have the discipline to see actions through, having thought through the plan, execution, and consequences. I was on a Board of Trustees and resigned because I didn't have confidence in the plan and proposed execution. 

Hooplication: "The magic is in the work."

7. "Focus inside your boat." This extends the lessons that Charlie Jones learned covering Olympic rowing. And it repackages the Stoic philosophy, "control what you can control." Have priorities, say "no" when appropriate, and do it now. 

Hooplication: Do a few things exceptionally well. 

8. "Knowledge is power." Learners own more success, make better decisions, and enjoy the spoils, higher compensation. "Knowledge will not come looking for us." We perform to the level of our training. Knowledge saves lives. Our education is always a work in progress. Our final assignment is "to share with others what we have learned." 

Hooplication: "Share something great." 

Lagniappe: from the world of medicine... COVID-19 inputs...but why doesn't everyone get sick? Each of us interacts differently with other individuals and society. 

From Cevik et al., SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics should inform policy, September, 2020

Lagniappe 2: Bubble Vision

“I think one of the things that we’ve tried to do is we’ve talked about when we got here – using an opportunity to inspire, empower, and find joy playing a kid’s game together." - Brad Stevens

Lagniappe 3: Louis Side Ball Screen, another way to get entry. 

Lagniappe 4: You can run a lot from horns, including Flex

Denver runs HORNS, and they run flex action on weakside. Number 23 doesn’t switch and MPJ gets layup pic.twitter.com/u6nPEHWzBb

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) September 23, 2020

Basketball: "All These Little Things Add Up" - How NBA Rookie Grant Williams Gets Minutes

"You own your paycheck." - Kevin Eastman

Your paycheck includes your minutes. If you want love from the coach, find ways to make her put you on the floor. Minutes aren't automatic in the NBA, especially if you're drafted number 22. 

Coach Daniel breaks down his game (above)... 63% at power forward and 37% at center, despite being 6'6"

• Be versatile (has guarded all five positions)
• Be instinctive to overcome your limitations
• Understand pick-and-roll coverage
• Use defensive fakes (illustrated versus James Harden)
• Show your worth on analytics (elite defensive rating)
• Know your limitations (post defense)
• "Do the little things" (positioning)
• Use your intelligence to take away the most efficient shots
• Box out
• Use your body to control the screener (limit slips)
• Recover during the scramble
• Be loud
• Screen and seal
• Keep improving (limited usage but 60% 3's in playoffs, 80% EFG%

Yogi Berra reminds us, "you can see a lot by just looking." Highlights show how Celtics rookie Grant Williams finds ways to get on the court: 

1. Defend multiple positions
2. Contain the ball
3. Take a charge
4. Help at the rim
5. "Show your hands"
6. Stay vertical
7. Earn trust via pick-and-roll protection
8. Understand "the ball scores" 
9. Catch the ball (no alligator arms)
10. Show toughness (play bigger than you are)
11. Never give up on a play
12. Contest shots without fouling

Lagniappe: Louisville basketball newsletter

Basketball: Keywords for Young Players and "Be on the Shoulder of the Coach

Kevin Eastman's Why the Best Are the Best includes twenty-five powerful words he values.

 

Imagine we're given five minutes to change the life of a player, leaving the whole of our experience and wisdom. That focuses us on the big picture, editing out details about force, pace, sprinting, direction, and more. Shine the light on vital and transformative. 

Perspective

Accountability

Connection

Decision-Making 

Service

Perspective. Put basketball in perspective. Find balance among family, studies, and sport. This was the most enduring lesson from my high school coach. 

How we play or coach is how we live. Courage is not the opposite of fear, recklessness is. 

Accountability. 962 English words end in bility. Bill Belichick says that football is about "ability and durability." My definition for accountability is "holding ourself to a high standard." It includes communication - verbal, non-verbal, and written. Don Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements includes, "always do your best." That emphasizes accountability to teammates and to ourselves. 

Build players up. A harsh word, like the genie, cannot be "put back in the bottle." Cam Newton supported receiver N'Keal Harry after a Week 1 fumble. Harry repaid him with eight catches in Week 2. 

Connection. "Play for your teammates." 

• Make teammates better 
• Excel in your role 
• Impact the game positively 

Not everyone will be an excellent player, but everyone can be a great teammate. 

Decision-making. Make the right "basketball play." Each practice, off-season workout, and game sums the decisions and execution of the participants. 

The right play is right for the team, not necessarily for you. Shooting is a privilege not a right. If you abuse the privilege, there are consequences. 

"Good judgment comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgment." The best players in the world - chess, business, poker, medicine, sport - make flawed decisions. They decide based on incomplete information, erroneous information, probability not certainty, experience, and other factors. In Sources of Power, Gary Klein describes recognition-primed decisions, where experts (e.g. firefighters) make decisions based on their past observations and understanding. Even good decisions can still turn out poorly. 

Service. My favorite basketball quote is Phil Jackson's, "basketball is sharing." Robert Greenleaf's servant leadership offers a framework. The leader serves the community, putting their needs above her own. That doesn't imply a lack of interest of the leader, but knowing "the needs of the many come before those of the few or the one." 

Summary:

• Seek balance.
• Hold yourself to high standards.
• Always do your best. 
• Everyone can be a great teammate.
• Make the right play. 
• Serve. 

Lagniappe: Impact the possession (offensively and defensively), regardless of whether you score or whether your man scores. Quiz the players about contributing without the ball. 

Offensively: 

• Space 
• Move without the ball
• Screen - sprint, deceive, take good angles, don't foul 
• Rebound 
• Convert

Defensive: 

• Communicate - ELO (early, loud, often) 
• Protect the basket (the ball scores)
• Contain the ball
• Contest shots without fouling
• Help, rotate, and recover 

Lagniappe 2: "It's all about the 3-ball..." except when it isn't. Gibson Pyper analysis. 

Lagniappe: "Be on the shoulder of the coach." 

"Teaching sticks." 

Basketball: Virality, What Makes Ideas Contagious? From Kerr to Spoelstra and Krzyzewski

Ideas, good and bad, change society, sport, and us. Collaboration and language separated Sapiens from the animals around us. 

The power of ideas doesn't necessarily mirror their goodness or truth in society or sport. In medicine, anti-vaccine sentiment caught on because of a British physician, Andrew Wakefield, who published that vaccines caused autism. The problem was... they didn't. He manipulated the data and became famous as a charlatan. He lost his medical license. 

Jonah Berger's excellent Contagious, Why Things Catch On, examines why and how ideas and institutions flourish. Quality, price, and advertising contribute but how does that relate to basketball? 

Can an elite coach become ordinary? Steve Kerr is celebrated as both as coach and new age thinker. Kerr prepared for coaching for years before his opportunity came. But lose Durant to free agency and injury, Curry and Thompson to injury, and the penthouse becomes the outhouse. That's not to say that yesterday's news won't become tomorrow's once a top draft choice rejoins the healed Curry, Thompson, and Green. 

What powers ideas in sport, specifically basketball? 

• Recent results
• Great stories 
• Emotional impact 
• The power of "authority" 
• Social proof (popularity) 

Recency. We're wired toward biases - recency, endowment ("my dog's better than your dog."), attribution (I earned success, it wasn't luck), confirmation (read what we believe), and so on. "What have you done for me lately?" Giannis Antetokounmpo wins a consecutive NBA MVP but the Bucks bomb in the bubble. Recency? Is he really all that? If the Heat were to win another NBA championship, some will 'discover' Eric Spoelstra. He was never lost. The NBA trend likely to find adherents is expanded use of ZONE DEFENSE. It won't replace MAN, but more coaches and teams will experiment with zones, junk, and extended blitzes. Pro sports aren't about purity, just winning. 

Great stories. Humans are storytelling animals. The Heat, 10-2 in the Bubble, are a great story. We'll hear about the Marquette guys, Butler and Crowder, free agent to be Goran Dragic, Bam Adebayo and The Flintstones, and wunderkind Tyler Herro. The connection between Hank Gathers and Spoelstra might reemerge as well as the legacy of Pat Riley. Hoop fans feast on stories. 

 

Emotional impact. Teams connect with fans through the media. The absence of local venues and the spectacular salaries that players earn reduce those ties. Reach out through small acts of kindness and social responsibility. NBA Bubble Life caught on. Small gestures by players can leave big ripples. 

The NFL stood silent when Colin Kaepernick protested for social justice. But when a consortium of NFL stars lent their voices after the murders of George Floyd and others, Roger Goodell quickly acknowledged that "we were wrong." Many people opposed the NFL's change of heart, conflating the anthem and the military, not the anthem and "liberty and justice for all." 

The Star-Spangled Banner has four verses. Most Americans haven't heard the raw emotion of the third stanza, 

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Authority figures. Industry leaders have greater reach than nobodies, the food chain principle. An individual author is literally, "vox clamantis in deserto," a voice crying in the wilderness. Coach K suggests an all-in NCAA Tournament. An idea derives some credibility from its source. Others have suggested this previously; but when the big dogs bark, people listen. Good ideas can come from anywhere; so can bad ones. 

Social proof. Popularity begets popularity. Remember Loyola of Chicago becoming the NCAA darlings? Young stars like Doncic and Murray emerge on the big stage. Authors and actors seek favorable reviews because a five-star rating is about twenty times more likely to sell a book than a one-star. Do you check the Rotten Tomatoes rating before watching a film? 

Quality is just one of many factors that attract eyeballs. 

Lagniappe from Seth Godin: Most of the time, the phrase is, “it’s time to get back to work.”

Maybe we’d be better off saying, “I need to get back to making magic.”

Lagniappe 2 from Northeastern Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett (via Farnam Street), "When I affect your nervous system in a way and you’re not aware of it, your brain’s just going to try to make sense of it. My point is that when someone else gets worked up, you’re more likely to get worked up too. If you don’t want to be worked up, you don’t want that person to be worked up. A lot of times when people say don’t be sad, don’t be angry, really, what they’re saying is, I don’t want to deal with you being angry or sad, and I don’t want to feel that way so I want you to calm down."

Lagniappe 3: Why the Heat zone did and didn't work in ECF games one and two. Good zone offense...drive the gaps to pass, move the ball, penetrate and pass...theory and practice.