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Sunday, September 22, 2024

The Last Practice - Life Lessons Work for Basketball

We never know...when. Professor Randy Pausch gave The Last Lecture about life as he faced terminal cancer. If we conduct our last lecture sharing lessons about basketball and life, what belongs?

Of Pausch, Sonja Barisic writes, "The book goes beyond the lecture, giving Pausch more room to tell his kids what he would have tried to teach them over the next twenty years. He counsels them to have fun, tell the truth, dare to take risks, look for the best in everyone, make time for what matters, and always be prepared".

Compared with The Last Lecture, any last practice pales in comparison.  

1. "Nobody is better than you," Mom taught. But that's not all. "And you are no better than anyone else." Better to say, "humility isn't thinking less about yourself, but about thinking about yourself less." 

My former coach, Sonny Lane, tells a story at national leadership conferences. He asks coaches how they select captains. He asks if any have experienced this. The team votes a player 'Captain,' a player who has never even started a varsity game. The player says he's no more worthy than any other player and asks to be called "Team Representative." I was that player. 

2. "Thank you." Always thank players at the end of practice for their focus and hard work. Most of us don't thank our parents enough for their sacrifices and our opportunity. We choose lives of gratitude or grievance. Nobody experiences a positive life with a negative attitude. 

3. "Improve." Find answers to the test. UNC soccer coach Anson Dorrance calls it, "continual ascension." Some say that we either continually improve or fall behind. I think it was Brad Stevens who said, "the magic is in the work." 

4. "Sacrifice." What is best for us won't always be best for the team. Choose what is best for the team. 

5. "Volunteer." Youth gets fuzzy in old age. At Sam Jones's basketball camp, John Killilea is speaking and starts, "I need a vol--" and I'm up like being shot out of a rocket. If you want to be remembered, be memorable. When I started tryouts, I began, "I need a volunteer." Hands fly. I thank the girls and remind them "that's not enough." Enthusiasm makes greatness. 

6. "Love the game." People thrive on energy and excitement. Speaking of knowing the answer...years ago, two minutes before tryout, a little twelve year-old girl, Naomi, approaches me. "Coach, I am really excited to be here." Be excited to be present and "make the big time wherever you are."

7. "The best push to be great." Study greatness. Study great writers, great coaches, great players. Work separates them. Ben Franklin chose a printing apprenticeship of nine years because he aspired to writing greatness. Michelangelo was 26 at the time of completing "The Pieta." When others asked how he could do this at such a young age he explained that he had worked ten hours a day from a young age. He began his apprenticeship for the Medicis at thirteen. 


8. "Always do your best," the Fourth Agreement from The Four Agreements. Sometimes our best isn't so great. But putting forth our best effort leaves less room for regret. And we all know the pain of regret. 

9. Words are powerful, raising people up, soul-crushing truth, reasons to think. Praise the praiseworthy. Remind those important in our lives, "I believe in you." 

Lagniappe. Have the will to prepare to win. 

Lagniappe 2. What are we doing when nobody is around?  

Lagniappe 3. Learn to read defenses to execute well.  

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