Thursday, July 4, 2024

Basketball: All's Well That Inspires Herb Welling?

Herb Welling from the Facebook Group Herb on Hoops shared this Robert Fulghum piece from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.


The serious challenge, can we do something similar, a single page of basketball truths? Ideally, apply parallel construction. This is an initial attempt. 

"Basketball is sharing." Sportsmanship matters. "Foul for profit."

Limit mistakes, physical and mental. Take care of the ball. 

Leave the gym in better condition than you found it. 

Your legacy matters. "Leave the jersey in a better place." (Legacy)

Take care of yourself - sleep, nutrition, hydration, exercise, recovery.

Find a mentor, pay attention, and always be coachable. 

Seek balance among family, work, and sport. Find joy in your teammates and be happy for their success (Mudita).

"Play hard, play smart, and play together." Have fun. 

Learn every day. Create edges with space. "The ball has energy." Players and ball move. Execute in the scoring moment at the rim, in the midrange, and beyond the arc. 

"The magic is in the work." 

Be positive and speak greatness.

Be easy to play with and hard to play against. Good defenders pressure and contain the ball, help and recover, challenge shots without fouling, and end possessions with defensive rebounds. 

"No tree grows to the sky." What goes around comes around as the circle of basketball life is real. Today you're the windshield, tomorrow the bug. Karma is real.  

Basketball lessons are open source and the only 'secret sauce' is work. 

Everyone goes under the microscope, gets subjected to pressure, and takes criticism. When we're lucky or blessed, we do it with people we love and who love us. 

Lagniappe. "Good artists borrow. Great artists steal." - Picasso  Finish stronger off two. 

Lagniappe 2. Take care not to travel. 

Lagniappe 3. Play a lot with plenty of decision-making and touches. 





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