Thursday, June 27, 2024

Basketball: Truths Hidden in Plain Sight

Coach Mike Krzyzewski noted that you beat teams by making plays not by running plays.

Basketball truths live in the public domain. The jump shot has been around about 90 years, 1-3-1 defense over 80, the Flex offense almost 60 years.

Einstein preached, "Imagination is more important than information," but never developed a basketball theory of relativity. 

What truths are so obvious and yet poorly understood that players need to embody? Players should understand broad concepts and embrace fine-tuning them with specifics. 

  • "Every day is player development day."
  • "Play harder for longer." 
  • "Success is a choice." 
  • "Plan your trade. Trade your plan." 
  • "Get more and better shots than your opponent." 

"Every day is player development day." - Dave Smart

Specifics: You're either getting better or getting worse. Dr. Fergus Connolly's core four of skill, strategy, physicality, and psychology deserve regular attention. 

The NBA has a site devoted to mind health. Here's a screenshot. 


Breath control activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the counterpoint to the sympathetic "fight or flight" system. Think .B (dot B), stop and take a breath. 

"Excellent teams play harder for longer." 

Specifics: Playing harder for longer combines physical and mental conditioning. Teams run "boot camps" to simulate military physical hardening. LeBron James spends a million dollars a year on trainers and nutritionists. Invest in yourself. Buy a jump rope for under ten dollars. 

"Success is a choice." - Rick Pitino book title

Specifics: Are we investing our time or spending it? Remember David Mamet's advice, "do one thing every day for your craft and one for your business. "Eat that frog" means to take care of the one hard thing first. 

Pitino teaches, "Success is a choice and there are no shortcuts…"

"Plan your trade. Trade your plan." - Linda Raschke

Specifics: Where do our points arise? Where do our opponents points arise? UCONN Coach Geno Auriemma expects a third of points off transition, a third off sets, and a third off threes. If you're a youth coach, you don't have the shooters he has, so that's fool's gold. 

"Get more and better shots than your opponent." - Pete Newell  

Specifics: That implies getting more and better possessions than your opponent, meaning "succeed possession by possession." Your best scorers need more shots in their spots and your team has to disallow the same for their opponent. 

Lagniappe. Do you script plays to open the game? It's a thought. 

Lagniappe 2. What's our deal? 

  • Constantly build skills. 
  • Simplify. 
  • Share something great. 

 

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