Basketball Programming: Five Worth Watching and Analytics that Save Lives

Find entertaining and informative programming. Here are a few basketball-related that I found doing both.  

Swagger (Apple TV). With Kevin Durant as Executive Producer, Swagger delivers the  emotional roller coaster of young Jace Carson who searches for the big time. He's searching for a path to the pros. His coach is a no-nonsense guy struggling to carve out his own pathway on the Metro DC club team circuit. “I need you not to just be the best player. I need you to be the most valuable.” More realism is possible if parents were chirping, "you're playing Jace too much." 

The Playbook (Netflix). For sport aficionados, The Playbook profiles five pro coaches including Doc Rivers and Dawn Staley. Rivers shares insight into "ubuntu" and Staley explains that she realized success at UVA meant putting as much effort into study as basketball. But it also gives insight into Serena Williams' coach Patrick Mouratoglou, European soccer maven and curmudgeon Jose Mourinho, and USWNT soccer coach Jill Ellis. 

Dean Smith (Showtime, 2015). Showtime profiles the North Carolina legend who links the past (Phog Allen) with modern basketball (Michael Jordan). Smith broke the color barrier in the ACC, recruiting Charles Scott and was a powerful voice for social change in addition to being a two-time NCAA Championship coach. 

Basketball or Nothing (Netflix). Competition has universal appeal. The reality television documentary follows Chinle High School as a new coach seeks to deliver a state championship with talented but undisciplined players who grew up playing Rezball. Along the way, they encounter Winslow Arizona, but not The Eagles. 

Last Chance U: Basketball (Netflix). Why do we love basketball? Inspiration, emotion, and the fine line between success and failure captivate us. LCUB explores the journey. 

Lagniappe. All of our coaching careers were touched by COVID-19. Just as we use analytics to keep track of our team's progress, scientists track COVID-19 using wastewater data. Wastewater concentration of virus keep accurate score of who's winning. 

Are we winning? North suburban Boston wastewater has viral concentrations ten times that of last winter and hundreds of times last summer. We are not. 

COVID-19 is a lot like basketball. Wanting "normal" is like wanting our teams to win. Wanting doesn't produce victories. We have to do the right things, every day.

Lagniappe 2. Decision-making is an art. Kobe breaks down film to teach decision-making. 

Kobe explains how being able to execute scoring passes frees him up to score. 

 

Defining Elements of Hard Work* and a Shooting Drill

"Work hard." Clarify that. Win or loss, improvement is always available to those who choose hard work. 

Hard Work

Big picture

Small picture - Details 

Horse sense

Persist

Big picture. Professionalism applies at the highest and the lowest levels of basketball (or other domains)

• Be on time ("Dean Smith Time" meant ten minutes early)
• Know your job (responsibilities)...if you don't know, ask! 
• Set priorities (absolutes) that need to be done... it might mean anything from practicing a skill, watching video, or getting treatment. 
• Do your job. It's "know that" over "know how." 
• Academics. "There is no ability without eligibility." 

Small picture. Operate at a granular (detailed) level. 

• What are the coaches' expectations? 
• "Don't cheat the drill." Effort is a choice. 
• Break down key parts of the game. 
• Half-court defense
• Half-court offense
• Transition offense
• Transition defense
• Defending the pick-and-roll (get on the same page)

As coaches, clarify roles and expectations. Sacrifice quantity of tactics for quality of both tactics and technique. "We can't run it if we can't run it (execute)." 

Analyze how we are scoring (or not scoring). Are points in transition, sets, threes, in the paint, free throws? 

Horse sense. "Do you want information from the horse's mouth or the other end?" 

•  "It's the work." A new U.S. Senator was advised to meet with senior senators. Staff set up a meeting with Senator Robert Byrd who asked, "are you a work horse or a show horse?" It's the same in basketball. Some players come into The Association and "live the life." They don't stick around. The competition is just too good to rest on your laurels. 
• Often it's the work horse who gets noticed and advances. 
• Learn how things connect. You've heard the expression, "pee like a racehorse." Diuretics aren't intended to make the horse pee, but to reduce nosebleeds. How fast can you run with a nosebleed? 

Persist. You know the Aesop fable about the Tortoise and the Hare. 

• Nothing replaces will. 
• What are you prepared to sacrifice?
• "Just keep going."
• Bill Belichick preaches, "it's about ability and durability." 

Summary:

• Be professional.
• Operate at a granular (detailed) level.
• Break down key parts of the game. 
• Analyze how we are (or are not) scoring.
• Sacrifice quantity of tactics for quality of both tactics and technique.
• It's the work horse that gets noticed.
• It's about ability and durability. 

Lagniappe. Shooting drill (3 shots) 

Catch and shoot 3, transition dribble 3, off the screen jumper. 

*Some elements adapted from MasterClass (The White House) on Resilience

Resilience: Daring to Compete

Resilience is a skill. I define resilience as the capacity to give our best effort regardless of the circumstances. 

During medical training, trainees are continuously stressed, overworked, and fatigued. We routinely had shifts approaching 36 hours. Grabbing an hour or two of sleep was desirable but uncertain. 

Current trainees allegedly are disallowed (by law) from working over eighty hours. That's theory. During my second year of "residency" I worked 185 consecutive days. This degrades decisions and performance but quitting on patients and peers is not an option. 

Denial isn't part of resilience. Confront our limitations. 

"Invert, always invert." What types of actions occur because of lack of resilience? 

• Mental checkout. Players fail to hear and apply coaching.
• Poor transition defense. 
• Bad defensive rebounding. 
• Poor help and recover defense. 
• Diminished ball pressure.
• Degraded shot selection and free throw percentage. 

Basketball demands resilience in a variety of ways. 

• Playing through minor illness and injury ("hurt not injured")
• Playing through disappointment over role or production
• Losing tough games or tough stretches
• Contributing during a game when overmatched
• Never quitting during games - "play the game not the scoreboard"
• Not surrendering to distractions (family issue, academics, relationships)
• Negative feedback (can come from 'friends' or foes)
• Negative media coverage

Whom do we rely upon for positive energy?

• Own our attitude. 
• Grow our support system. 
• Contribute to positive team culture. Uplift those around us. 

Develop resilience role models. "I can do this." 

• Kyle Maynard was born with short limbs and had great parental support developing great personal resources. He later climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. 
• Arlene Blum led an all-woman expedition to summit Annapurna, one of the fourteen Himalayan peaks above 8,000 meters. Her group overcame severe weather and avalanches that contributed to a pair of deaths. 
• Professor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain won a Congressional Medal of Honor leading the Maine 20th Regiment at Gettysburg. 
• Sara Blakely, sole owner of Spanx, a five billion dollar company, began her career as a fax machine salesperson who feared public speaking. 

Coaching examples of resilience

• Dean Smith returned from a road trip to find himself hung in effigy at UNC. His outraged players proceeded to win 8 of their final 10 games. 
• Doc Rivers stabilized the Clippers in the wake of the Donald Sterling scandal. Rivers explained how his parents told him, "Never be a victim." 
• Don Meyer's near-fatal car accident led to a discovery of terminal cancer. Nevertheless he returned to coaching at a high level and never gave up. 

How can we specifically become more resilient?

• Consider cognitive (above), emotional, physical (fitness), and spiritual domains 
• Practice positive self-talk (affirmations). 
• Include a personal mental highlight reel of achievements/success. 
• Practice mindfulness. 
• Study resilience. 

Life comes at us fast. We won't always be prepared for it. But we can respond more effectively. 

Summary: 

• Give our best regardless of circumstances.
• Quitting on peers is not an option.
• Study resilience role models.
• Develop a portfolio of coaching resilience examples. 
• Work on resilience as a skill in the 'coactives' model of technical, tactical, physical, and psychological domains 

Lagniappe (something extra): MasterClass notes on Resilience interview with Huma Abedin 

Create value for team and teammates regardless of your role on the court. 

Lagniappe 2. Training impact varies with the readiness of athletes to absorb it. 

Grinding athletes into dust exacts a toll. 

Basketball: Getting into Ball Screens

Deception is a core element to basketball. Players use ball fakes, shot fakes, set up cuts, slip screens, fake digs and doubles, "pull the chair," and more. 

Players, think about screening legally, angling into and of the screen, protecting yourself, and always sprint to screen. Screen hard but clean. 

Even when we're "known" to favor ball screens, disguise them. Here are a few ways among the virtually infinite number:

Horns allows for a lot of interplay among the top three. If we have bigs who are strong PnR players, disguise entry and occupy help side defense with a pindown. Small on big screens often create mismatches for switching teams. 

Blatt Horns DHO Plus. Former Cavaliers' coach David Blatt used another horns variation with a DHO into a ball screen at the elbow. 

Multiple options challenge defenses. Urgent cutting sets up a backscreen basket cut into a wing ball screen out of horns. 

Excel at "micro actions." DHOs are excellent ways to establish ball screens. "Jump stop and platter." 

We like to practice this with "Continuous DHO" (below) with penetrate and pitch out action into a sequential DHO. First practice without defense, then add soft defense, then live action. Add elements like "dribble at" where if defense overplays, then the receiver cuts backdoor. 

Pitch into Screen. 

Under Jason Kidd, the Bucks ran this post-pitch action into ball screens. 

Ball screen from special situation. 

Most NBA teams have SLOBs beginning with ballside zipper cuts. GSW ran it to the other side for Klay Thompson. 

Ball watchers? 

Ball screens can set up other actions. The Celtics ran the ball screen into backcuts from either the "three" or "two" side. 

Find what works for you.

Lagniappe. Motivation. 

Measuring Success Today Versus Tomorrow and Bonus Material from Geno Auriemma and Gibson Pyper

How do we measure success as ‘leaders’ of programs? Although not businesses, we can measure the progress and satisfaction of our constituents- players, community, supervisors.

Everyone sets our own metrics. Credibility demands some measure of success. Here are considerations:

• How was our teamwork (collaborative culture)? Leaders grow leaders.
• Did we improve? Be objective. 
• Did we compete? 
• Were we resilient? 
• How was our preparation?
• Did we practice hard?
• How did players do at the next level, in life?
• How was our communication and feedback?
• Success and winning are not identical. 

Don't mistake outside criticism with failure. Remind ourselves of the fundamental attribution error, blaming other's failures on flawed character and our own on circumstances. 

Did we make the full effort to do the job right? 

Did we keep the main thing the main thing? Everyone has their idea about what the main thing is. The main thing could be winning, development, or the experience. 

With respect to winning, ask "what does our team need now?" As leaders, ask what do our players need forever? 

Define our time horizon. My horizon is a generation. 

Lagniappe (something extra): "Don't talk about how good you want to be. Show me how good you want to be." Practice defines whom we become. 

• Change the equation to make practice harder
• Advantage-disadvantage (we routine practiced 5 v 7)
• "Change the score, change the rules." 

Lagniappe 2. Old but great video with analysis by Gibson Pyper. Remember, he's discussing the NBA. Who are you playing? Do they have shooters? Do they have playmaking bigs (roll guys)? 

We play the defense that our players can play. When I tried to introduce run and jump, our players didn't 'get it.' When I stubbornly stuck to man, we couldn't contain the ball. Our guards were so small that we couldn't trap because opposing guards threw over them. 

Five Unforgettable Lessons Learned Half a Century Ago Plus Proven Ideas for Competitive Advantage

"Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." 

Fifty years ago Coach Sonny Lane instilled core values. They still apply. 

1. "If I stop yelling at you, it's because I've given up on you." (He didn't.) Coaches don't waste our breath on unredeemable players. An important corollary is, "if I correct one player, the message applies to everyone." One of Bob Knight's messages was "everyone plays defense." Everyone gets back fully engaged in transition. 

2. "I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied." Coach Lane came to Wakefield High School with no winning basketball tradition and no reputation and transformed it in three years to a sectional champion in a league that had produced a pair of NBA first round draft choices (Ron Lee, Bob Bigelow). Nobody gave him anything. 

3. "Sacrifice." Basketball builds upon sharing. My favorite basketball quote is Phil Jackson's, "basketball is sharing." Shared vision, shared goals, and sharing the ball characterize strong teams. Madeleine Blais wrote the classic In These Girls Hope Is a Muscle about the Amherst Hurricanes who came together only when their two star players learned to coexist and thrive. 

Ego is the enemy. I see it at every level, when middle school girls glare at each other when not getting their shots and touches. "There is no MY TURN in basketball." 

4. "Hats and gloves." Coach wanted us to dress properly for the weather. "You're no good to the team sick." It's science. "Most isolates of human rhinovirus, the common cold virus, replicate more robustly at the cool temperatures found in the nasal cavity (33–35 °C) than at core body temperature (37 °C)." Keeping our nose warm (masks) may help stunt the viral growth. Another reason masks might work in the frozen north.

5. "You know what I like about you guys?" We'd answer together, "nothing." Excellent teams express a mindset of "one band, one sound." 

Asked about his team, the great Amos Alonzo Stagg said, "ask me in twenty years, I'll be able to tell you then." 

Summary: 

• "If I stop yellng at you..."
• Sacrifice.
• "I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied."
  
• "Hats and gloves."
• "You know what I like about you guys?"

Lagniappe: Practical Suggestions for Competitive Advantage

• Ask players to get more sleep. There's evidence (from a Stanford study) that improved sleep improves speed and shooting percentage.
• Eat breakfast. A study showed eating breakfast improved shooting, especially free throw shooting. Whether it's better energetics or improved cognition, breakfast bumped performance. 
• Don't dismiss informal learning. "It would, in any case, be unreasonable to believe that formal education could ever surpass informal education in terms of the volume of information and experiences a person acquires in a career." Kristen McDonnell (personal communication) shares that she participates in regular teleconferences with area coaches to discuss coaching. 

"Okey Dokey" Lifetime Leadership Lesson from Vernon Dokey and Others

Never heard of Vernon Dokey? Me, neither. But in his MasterClass, President Clinton shared the departing lesson from his eighth grade science teacher, Mr. Dokey. 

At the end of the year, he shared that when he finished shaving every day, he looked in the mirror and said, "Vernon, you're beautiful." Clinton said that Mr. Dokey was anything but handsome. Dokey told students to look in the mirror.

Everyone wants to be respected, to be significant, to have their lives have meaning. 

As leaders, make others feel respected and help get the most from themselves. We hear stories of coaches who tell players they're "worthless" or only matter to them on the court. Regardless of how often those coaches win, they have lost the meaning of coaching. 

Learning begins with listening. "Listen to other people's stories." Here are a few invaluable lessons MasterClass shared:

• Samuel L. Jackson reminds us to "present the best version of ourselves." 
• Bob Woodward advised to "report the best obtainable version of the truth." 
• Sara Blakely's father asked each week, "What did you fail at this week?" Winners learn to fail. 
• "Did anything interesting happen to you at school today?" A question Clinton's uncle asked regularly. Keep our antennas up. 
• Usher suggested that we "study our mentor's mentors." What makes leaders tick?

Leadership lessons surround us. Are we open to receiving them? 

Lagniappe (something extra): Practice getting the shots you want. 

Coach Davis wants:

- Open catch-and-shoot 

- "Two foot layups"

- "Post ups." 

If we categorized (film study) the shots our teams take, how good are they? As an individual, what quality was each of your shots? 

“MacGyver” Basketball - Steal a Gift

Merry Christmas! 

Matching MacGyver's unconventional approaches challenges us all. But here are a few "innovations" old and new. 

1. Physical Training

• Special forces 
• Jump rope training (increased VO2max - oxygen utilization, the purest measure of fitness)

2. Drills 

• Go sideways (shooting at the side of the backboard focuses on targeting)
• Ball in the plastic bag 
• Dribble tag (inside the arc, add constraints like non-dominant hand)
• "Ladder" shooting. I duct taped a tennis racquet to a six foot step ladder and practiced shooting over that defender. 

3. Timeouts/Special situations (BOBs and SLOBs)

• TO Organization - always lineup players left to right by position 1-2-3-4-5
• Odd-even-zero (Doug Brotherton) plays are called according to time on the clock. E.g. the clock show 4:21 remaining, then the clock calls the "odd" play. Coach can override.

4. Football and basketball. 

Inbounding. 

5. Teaching 

• Flashcards (supplement video) 
• "Time out" during practice (Coach Knight). Diagram the play and then give players pen and paper and ask them to reproduce the play (assess attention and cognition)

6. Execute differently. Drag screen with the backside (Coach Obradovic) to get a better view of the court during the screen. 

7. Video (quiz) 

• Show video and pause to ask players for a preferred option

8. Wheel of misfortune. Spin the wheel and ask a player to give a one-minute discussion on the topic. 

Lagniappe. What's the present I want to give this Christmas? I want to be the best sharer I can be or as long as I can. 

Lagniappe 2. Pocket pass plus. 

Understanding Basketball: Breaking Down Game Elements Combined with Player Factors (Plus Triple Lagniappe)

Decisions determine destiny. Learning is part habit and part choice. Dr. Fergus Connolly's Game Changer presents both a broad overview of the game, players, and coaching but also fine details. I think this book belongs in every coach's library and gifted a coach a copy this year. 

Every player has "limiting factors" that intersect with the "moments" of game play. Connolly prefers the term limitations to weaknesses. That could be related to tactics (basketball IQ), technique (skill), physical makeup, or psychology (resilience). Understanding how game moments and player limitations connects provides opportunities for growth and better outcomes. 

Imagine a player's greatest 'moment' need is transition defense. Is the problem fixable with attention (psychology coactive), speed (physical coactive), or both? 

Even a top player will have areas to become more efficient as a playmaker, scorer, or defender. 

The first five years of his career, his three-point shooting percentage high was 27.6% with low frequency three-point shooting. The career percentage was 32.7%. (Kobe Bryant's was 32.9%).  His name? Michael Jordan. You say, "well that wasn't a priority." It wasn't for Jerry West or Sam Jones either. 

One top player I coached had strength and conditioning needs. She addressed them and added another dimension to her game. Another had limited shooting range and became a competent perimeter player in addition to a dominant post player. What separates these athletes is the desire for improvement and willing acceptance of coaching. 

Help players develop emotional intelligence as well by asking for their self-assessment of their strengths and limitations. Coach Don Kelbick is a major component of emphasizing strengths. Yet against top competition, a glaring limitation like problems with ball containment or finishing at the rim may decide games and minutes. 

As coach, diagnose where game factors and player factors intersect for better or for worse. If a player is limited defensively, define what combinations of basketball IQ, technique, athleticism, or effort need work. "What does our team need now?"

Coaches have limitations, too. Some don't excel at player development or Xs and Os but succeed because of skill in recruiting, teaching systems, and motivating. In Monte Burke's "Saban," Coach Saban's wife says that her husband isn't the greatest coach, but he is the greatest recruiter. 

Because we all have limitations, work to overcome them or to surround ourselves with others whose skills complement ours. 

Lagniappe: BOBs 

 

Lagniappe 2. Are we using enough drag screens? And don't forget the COACHING PEARL from Coach Obradovic, to set the drag screen with your chest FACING the basket to see the play develop in front of you. 

Lagniappe 3. Shooting drill progression. Have a line at each elbow and have players compete. Then add a coach about two feet in front of each line (hands down). The shooting percentage drops. Then have the coach put arms up but not trying to block the shot. Invariably the percentage falls more. Players must recognize that defense in different forms degrades shooting percentage. They must learn to shoot with defensive proximity and to favor open shots. Because effective field goal percentage differential is the greatest factor defining winning, better shots equals better chance to win. 

Because Great Offense Is Multiple Actions. Eight Examples of Halfcourt Scoring Tactics

Coaching covers territory from organization to technical-tactical, physiology, psychology, and more. Today, I'll share a few ideas on tactics. Youth coaches remind ourselves, "if we can't execute, it doesn't matter what we run." Sacrifice fewer actions for more fundamental practice, hard cutting, and on-time, on-target passing. 

"Great offense is multiple actions." They don't have to be conventional. Often simple works well. Reading defenses and cutting  urgently separate ordinary from extraordinary actions. Here are a few: 

Pick and roll

• High ball screen 
• Wing ball screen (teach players to reject the screen)
• Elbow get 

Adjust personnel to get the optimum scoring punch

DHO

• Baslc action
• Dribble at (wing backcut)
• Horns DHO PnR

Switch Everything action

Pistons 15 was action for Andre Drummond

Post entry options (e.g. 1-4 and others)

If the initial back cut isn't there, isolation action presents for the skilled big. 

Celtics Horns around (creates flexish options as well)

Corner Rip

Multiple screens are hard to defend and create physical and mental challenges

Backscreen PnR (Spain)

Horns backscreened PnR (Spain action)

Overplay defense (automatics)

Initiate "automatic" action (e.g. backcut) if defender's foot crosses "spacing line"

Iverson actions 

Iverson "Rip" action stolen from Doug Brotherton 

Track what works for our team. If we constantly freelance into turnovers and poor shots, then revision of early offense and more sets might be solutions. 

Pentucket "Iverson" classic action in postseason. 

Lagniappe: spacing, player and ball movement, execution 

Basketball: With Apologies to Dean Oliver, Three Factors

Dean Oliver authored the landmark Basketball on Paper, promoting the "Four Factors" that statistically correlate with winning. Those emphasize field goal percentage, turnover margin, offensive rebounding, and free throws. It's still great. 

Reductionism (for youth basketball) distills to "three musts." 

• Shot selection 
• Turnovers 
• Easy baskets allowed

To protect the guilty, I won't show clips...mostly. 

You aren't Caitlin Clark. When I watch high school players take step back threes that fall two feet short, I think, "what was that?" The great Dizzy Dean said, "if you can do it, you ain't boasting." If you make 'em, take 'em. But when you don't, keep that club in the bag. 

Better shot selection is the quickest path to improvement. 

• ROB shots... in range, open, on balance. Prove your range (range testing) in practice. 
• What's your three-point percentage? If it's 10-15 percent, you have no business taking that shot. "Bad shooters are aways open." And if you say, "I'm a good shooter" then how do you explain your stats? 
• "The quality of the shot relates to the quality of the pass." - Pete Carril 
• "Winners win in space." Why are you driving into a crowd? Asking for a friend.
• Get 7s (Tips from T.J. Rosene) 

Opportunity: Track team shot charts. Every team member should know what a good shot is for them and each other. 

Fewer turnovers mean more shots. A bad shot is better than a good turnover. 

• Winning the turnover battle matters. "The NBA team with fewer turnovers wins about 58 percent of the time. If field goal percentages are about equal, the team with fewer turnovers wins 69 percent of the time."
• Zak Boisvert on turnovers. 
• Separate decision turnovers and execution turnovers and fix both. 

And remember what Doc Rivers calls "shot turnovers." 

Opportunity: Track both number and type of turnovers to reduce both. Some players may need the permanent pivot foot. Show clips of "playing in traffic." It seldom works. 

No easy baskets. I used to think of three categories but I've expanded it. 

• Failed transition defense 
• Fouling bad shots or bad shooters
• Failed blockouts into putbacks
• Uncontested threes on shooters 
• Lack of help and recover defense (half-court)

Return to the premise that a third of games are decided by two possessions (six points) or fewer. Attend to the details - better shots, fewer turnovers, no easy baskets.

Opportunity: set standards for points allowed in transition (e.g. no more than three transition baskets per game. Track 3-7-2 three consecutive stops, seven times per half, two halves. If you get seven per half, success will follow. 

Lagniappe. Multiple action concepts still require execution.

 

Navigating The Coaching Minefield

“Any idiot with a whistle can coach.” Not so much. Coaches have many constituencies - the community, the Athletic Department and principal, boosters, families, and especially players. 

Leaders require a framework for operations. They will never please everyone. “The main thing is the main thing.” And the planning, preparation, and discipline of execution serves the main thing.

At the high school varsity level and above, winning matters. “Legacy programs” have sustainable competitive advantage through coaching, development, and culture. 

Strong programs attract and refresh talent by adding value - tangible skill building and a competitive and collaborative basketball experience. Years ago you could watch Andover warm up and see a few kids hit ten consecutive elbow jumpers. That bakes in winning. 

What barriers and pitfalls become “Claymores” aimed at coaches?

Everyone won’t  like us. We’re too young, too old, too smart, too dumb, too inexperienced, or too different. Think about the greeting fictional coach Norman Dale gets in Hoosiers. The locals didn’t want an outsider or discipline. Never confuse talent with liking.

Maybe you’re following a legend. Coaches have never met the standard John Wooden set at UCLA. Sometimes shoes can’t be filled.

Sports are a meritocracy, except when they aren’t. Influential parents can displace a coach with chatter and sometimes cold cash. A state Coach of the Year was fired by a $25,000 donation. Less might get it done. Cut or bench a local politician’s progeny and knives come out. 

What if the rising prospects have more talent than existing upperclassmen? Do you play the best players or risk the wrath of senior parents who feel their children have paid their dues? Remember the "Prime Directive" about parents first job is advocating for their child. 

Does your calculus include what’s best for the program or for you? You may have support from the AD or principal that’s a mile wide and an inch deep. That’s thin ice even with a proven track record. If the 'buddy system' doesn't include you it's goodbye Charlie. 

Find out what metrics define ‘success’ in your position. As a volunteer coach (in a paid position) I added financial value. At the middle school level, any pressure to win was self-imposed.

How might we add value? 

• Communication - give and get feedback
• Individual skill development* (better ingredients, better basketball) 
• “Teaching the game”
• Networking (clearing the path)
• Video analysis
• Retain and attract talent. Keep top players home with proven success. Yes, that may mean 'kissing the ring'. Stay humble. 

Getting buy in is essential. For many (not all) players and parents that’s proportional to minutes, role, and recognition. Recognizing the importance of complementary players helps. Erik Spoelstra’s message that “there is always a pecking order” and most players are role players may not fly.

Find support. Be media friendly. Connect with boosters. Decide how much transparency you can handle. Coaching girls, I’ve always had a full transparency policy. Parents are welcome at practice, pre- and post-game conferences. This isn’t the NSA or the NBA. 

Even when you bend over backwards, it won’t always be enough. Offend the wrong person and they may find a way to displace us. We can’t make everyone happy. 

Lagniappe (something extra). 

Basketball: How Are We Keeping Score? And Lagniappe on Angles

Life comes at us fast. We better be ready. Teams help... our family, our work groups, our broader community. 

As coaches, we oversee and create the "basketball experience" which some call culture. Basketball experience - shared vision, shared goals, shared sacrifice - speaks more than culture. 

Steve Kerr's leadership includes the triad of mindset, mentors, and culture, which touches on more of the basketball experience. Director Ron Howard says it another way, "the director is the keeper of the story." 

Invariably, someone will ask, "what was it like to play for Coach?" And we should ask "how does it feel to play for me?" 

How are we keeping score? When players are accused of bullying, marginalizing teammates (cliques), or substance abuse (Dr. Fergus Connolly might call that failed biotransformation), we lose core messages- teamwork, improvement, and accountability. That's failure. 

What belongs on our transformational scoreboard?

• Respect each other, officials, opponents 
• Respect the game - PTRW
• Take care of business- academics
• Be on time
• Know your responsibility
• Be present - focus
• Be humble
• Unite - play together
• Bring energy and energize
• Practice gratitude. Say thank you.

Everyone wants to win. But the job is bigger than that.

Lagniappe. Understand angles (remember the recent video from Drew Hanlen sharing Durant's approach).