"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." - John Wooden
"The differences between the person we are today and whom we become in five years are the people we meet and the books we read."
The death of expertise should terrify us. Twenty-five percent of Americans never read a book. If we get all our content from Fox or MSNBC, we're missing out. I can't force players I coach to read; I want to inspire them to read.
Readers unearth new worlds and unimagined possibilities. Excellent coaches like George Raveling, Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, Kevin Eastman, and Mike Neighbors are voracious readers.
What we don't know literally can kill us. I hope to whet your appetite with a few suggestions, chosen for content and writing quality.
The Positive Dog by Jon Gordon. Gordon extols the virtue of positivity via a heartwarming story. “Being positive won’t guarantee you’ll succeed. But being negative will guarantee you won’t.”-- Jon Gordon It's appropriate for ten-year-olds and octogenarians.
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. Hardy informs us how productive habits, like study or saving, become magnified by compounding. "Small choices + consistency + time = significant results." The one sentence I remember from the book is, "winners are trackers."
Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales. Gonzales shares the many dangers that can befall even modestly adventuresome people. I didn't think snorkeling in the Caribbean would put me face to face with a shark. And mountaineers who rope themselves together for safety are more likely to die. Did you expect that hiking could put you face-to-face with a bear? In the heat of battle, tunnel vision can kill us or someone we love. The information transfers to basketball. The strongest swimmers are more likely to drown because of overconfidence. "Winners win in space."
Give and Take by Adam Grant. Be a giver. Phil Jackson could sum up the book with his quote, "Basketball is sharing."
I'd be shocked if Jaylen Brown hasn't read Grant's book.
Jaylen Brown: "Marcus Smart may not get the credit, but he kept us together. The pace he played with, the control of the game. I'm looking forward to him in that role."
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) December 24, 2020
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown. Brown weaves three great stories together, the suffering of the Great Depression, the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany in the early 1930s, and the origins of the US Olympic crew team which competed in 1936.
