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
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
- 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.
