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Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Basketball: "You're Going to Get Hit"

"You're going to get hit." - Author Walter Mosley

Boxers know they'll get hit. Do the rest of us? 

Play basketball, coach basketball, write about basketball - "you're going to get hit." Shoulda done this, coulda don't that. What the hell is the matter with you?

Players take accusations of selfishness, softness, lack of skill, poor defense, disappointing performance, being a bad teammate, for choices made off the court. "You're going to take a hit." 

Coaches have even more avenues for verbal aggravated assault. Front offices, players, families, fans, and media all pick our metaphorical bones. Legions disagree with coaching philosophy, strategy, personnel selection and training, in-game adjustments, credit, and blame. If a coach walked on water, detractors would throw him a limestone life preserver. 

Writers have other issues. Hemingway said, "Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." Writers get labeled vicious and vindictive or superficial sycophants. Readers reject subjects, substance, style, and sometimes legitimately grate on grammar. 

What advice applies? 

1. Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech. 

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

2. Don Miguel Ruiz, "The Four Agreements"


3. Director Mira Nair's advice, to do this job well "you need the soul of a poet and the hide of an elephant."

4. Bobby Knight wisdom, "If you listen to the fans in the stands, soon you'll be sitting up there with them."

Lagniappe. Work on multiple skills during drills. 

Lagniappe 2. Cutting is an underappreciated skill. 

 Lagniappe 3. Triple bonus. Vegan chili 

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