Basketball - Stoic Advice, Learning Across Domains

Coach Wooden preached, "Little things make big things happen." Create sustainable competitive advantage with a "performance-focused, feedback-rich" approach.

We make our habits and our habits make us. For example:

• Did I speak greatness?
• Did I show empathy to my team? 
• Was I fully prepared for practice - mentally and physically? 
• Did I bring energy?
• Did my coaching present "the best version of myself?"

Reflecting on our performance closes the "feedback loop" of performance.

None of these ideas are new or radical. In "The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations," Ryan Holiday shares from the Roman statesman and author’s Seneca. 

"What bad habit did I curb today? How am I better? Were my actions just? How can I improve? At the beginning or end of each day, the Stoic sits down with his journal and reviews: what he did, what he thought, what could be improved. It’s for this reason that Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations is a somewhat inscrutable book—it was for personal clarity and not public benefit. Writing down Stoic exercises was and is also a form of practicing them."

Every coach preaches daily improvement, the "1 Percent Better" approach because we understand the exponential growth equation. 

Here’s the expanded 365-day compounding graph with both curves.

What the math says

• 1% better each day:

  $$1.01^{365} \approx 37.8$$

  → Nearly 38× improvement over a year.

• 1% worse each day:

  $$0.99^{365} \approx 0.03$$

  → You’re left with about 3% of where you started.

Leverage the power of compounding to improve whatever our domain - coaching, writing, teaching, sharing. 

Lagniappe. Growing culture demands intent. 

Elite cultures don't happen on accident.

Daniel Coyle (@DanielCoyle) studied some of the best cultures - Pixar, the San Antonio Spurs, and Navy SEALs to figure out what actually works.

In The Culture Code, he found 3 key skills that made their cultures elite👇 pic.twitter.com/0UHhOp3IZv

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) December 17, 2025

Lagniappe 2. Clever BOB with Zoom action and backscreen.  

Basketball - Minimize the Pain of Regret

• "An overabundance of choice, the fear of making a suboptimal decision, and the potential for lingering regret following missed opportunities can leave people unhappy." from "Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models" by Gabriel Weinberg, Lauren McCann  (Original quote from Barry Schwartz in The Paradox of Choice. 

"Woulda, shoulda, coulda." As Jim Rohn remarked, "we must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret."

Miguel Ruiz's fourth agreement reads "Always do your best." Although our best may not be our best ever or 'the best' in absolute terms, our best mitigates against regret. 

Coach John Wooden took a practical approach, "Regret is valuable only when it becomes a lesson." A problem arises in that the magnitude of regret rises in big games, especially in the deciding moments. In championship games, a loss leaves no chance for redemption. 

Nick Saban said, "Regret is the bill you pay later if you dodge discipline now." That approach seeks buy-in on action today - conditioning, film study, recovery. 

Phil Jackson advocated caution about the words we choose, "because words become culture." It's better to lose a game than to lose a player or a team because of unthinking reactions. Jackson understood that mindfulness widens the space between stimulus and reaction. 

Overarching lessons

• Everyone suffers regret. 
• Giving our best reduces the chance of regret. 
• Regret is a consequence of failed preparation. 
• Benefit from the lessons of regret. 
• Choose our words carefully. 

Lagniappe. The ability to feel joy not jealousy for others' success is a worthwhile skill. 

“Those people who can celebrate others’ success live a more stress free, less anxious life” - Jeff Van Gundy

(Via @usabjnt 🎥)

pic.twitter.com/KCeqXqRoHM

— Hoop Herald (@TheHoopHerald) December 16, 2025

Lagniappe 2. Understand that growth requires multiple inputs. 

Adding Value - New Meanings for 2025 Basketball?

"...the mind is your most formidable weapon." - Jack Carr in "Red Sky Mourning"

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” - Jody Picoult

Facts are commodities. Search engines and publicly available artificial intelligence share incomprehensible amounts of truths. Can we extract something worthy of stealing and implementing? Use this post as a "thought experiment," asking "what can we do better or differently?" 

For example, consider this prompt:

Prompt: What actions in NBA basketball produce the highest points per possession? That could include anything from transition, to pick-and-roll, isolation, combination actions such as Pistol or Zoom, anything?

ChatGPT hallucination: 

Which NBA actions produce the highest points per possession?

Exact numbers move year to year and Synergy’s detailed PPP tables are behind a paywall, but across seasons the hierarchy is reasonably consistent: Canis Hoopus+3NBA+3NBA+3

1. Transition offense

   • Highest PPP on average.

   • Anytime you can run off a steal, long rebound, or quick outlet, you’re usually in the 1.2–1.4+ PPP range as a team.

   • Wide-open threes, dunks, and layups with a scrambled defense.

2. Pick-and-roll with the ball-handler creating (PnR BH)

   • When you have an elite creator (Doncic, Curry, SGA types), well-spaced PnR is one of the most efficient half-court actions.

   • Punishes drop, switch, and blitz differently (pull-ups, pocket passes, skips).

3. Pick-and-roll with the roll man (PnR Roll Man)

   • Short rolls and rim dives—especially with shooters spaced—are very high PPP (lob dunks, layups, fouls).

   • Articles on teams like the Bucks highlight how roll-man PPP can explode when defenses mis-tag or over-blitz. Brew Hoop

4. Off-ball screening actions (Zoom, Spain PnR, pistol combos, etc.)

   • These “combo” actions—dribble handoff into PnR, Zoom (pin-down into DHO), Spain (backscreen on the roller)—are essentially ways to supercharge PnR and DHO spacing.

   • They often track near the top of half-court PPP because they force multiple defensive decisions in one possession.

5. Spot-up and catch-and-shoot threes

   • Not an “action” by itself, but the destination of good offense.

   • Drive-and-kick, paint touches, and ball reversals that generate clean C&S threes are some of the most efficient half-court outcomes.

6. Isolation

   • As a primary diet, iso is generally less efficient than PnR and transition.

   • But elite iso players (your Randle-in-a-hot-season archetype) can post excellent PPP, especially in late-clock and end-game situations. Canis Hoopus

If you’re thinking programmatically:

• Build your offense around creating transition and early advantage (pace, stops, outlets).

• In the half court, live in PnR / DHO / Zoom-type actions that create paint touches and closeouts.

• Use isolation as a scalpel, not a sledgehammer—for your very best creators and in late-clock situations.

Ask the question differently and AI generates different information.

What does transfer?

Across NBA, EuroLeague, and high-level FIBA data, you keep seeing the same hierarchy:

• Most efficient: cuts, putbacks, transition advantages, roll-man finishes. ResearchGate+1

• Middle: good pick-and-roll with passing, open spot-up threes.

• Least efficient overall: post-ups and isolations, especially for average players.

The EuroLeague end-of-game study (1.58 PPP on cuts, 1.33 on putbacks, 0.78–0.98 on post/ISO/spot-up) shows the same ranking we see in NBA Synergy breakdowns and other analyses. ResearchGate+2Basketball Poetry+2

Followup prompt: How applicable is data from the NBA to college or high school basketball? 

Followup hallucination:

Short answer: the patterns are very transferable; the exact numbers are not.

What does transfer?

Across NBA, EuroLeague, and high-level FIBA data, you keep seeing the same hierarchy:

• Most efficient: cuts, putbacks, transition advantages, roll-man finishes. ResearchGate+1

• Middle: good pick-and-roll with passing, open spot-up threes.

• Least efficient overall: post-ups and isolations, especially for average players.

The EuroLeague end-of-game study (1.58 PPP on cuts, 1.33 on putbacks, 0.78–0.98 on post/ISO/spot-up) shows the same ranking we see in NBA Synergy breakdowns and other analyses. ResearchGate+2Basketball Poetry+2

That ordering is extremely useful for college and high school coaching:

• You want more cutting, screening, advantage creation, offensive rebounding.

• You want fewer low-yield, stagnant isos and forced post-ups unless you have a real mismatch.

What doesn’t transfer cleanly?

1. Absolute efficiency numbers.

   • HS players miss more layups, throw more bad passes, and aren’t as good from three. So your PPP will be lower everywhere—but the relative ranking stays similar.

2. Spacing and 3-point volume.

   • NBA: deeper line, elite spacing, more 5-out, more shooting skill.

   • HS: lane can be crowded, fewer consistent shooters, so some actions (e.g., certain spread ball-screen looks) won’t generate the same clean reads.

3. Physicality and rules differences.

   • FIBA vs NCAA vs NFHS differences (defensive 3 seconds, charge/block interpretations, goaltending, hand-checking) all tweak efficiency.

4. Talent distribution.

   • NBA data is about what works when all 10 people on the floor are very good.

   • In HS/college, one great player can distort the math—if your star gets 1.05 PPP in iso and your other options are 0.7, you might iso more than an NBA team would.

How I’d use it as a coach

• Use NBA/FIBA data to prioritize concepts:

  • Build an offense around advantage → spacing → cut/drive/roll → extra pass → crash.

• Track your own PPP by play type in simple form (even if it’s just “points per 100 possessions” on: transition, P&R, post, iso, ATO sets).

• Compare your internal rankings, not your raw numbers, to what the big boys find.

In other words: borrow the hierarchy, not the decimals. The shape of the efficiency curve travels; the exact values are league-specific.

Adding value to "our situation" will vary a lot:

- What type of players do we have? Fast, physical, skilled, smart or something far less? 

Analogy: "Don't bring a gun to a gunfight if our opponents have a tank."

- What can we teach and they learn? If we have a group limited by fundamental skills, do we focus on upgrading skills or believe "fool's gold" that strategy will overcome our limitations? 

Analogy: If we're not the hare, can we upgrade the tortoise? 

- What's the competition level? If we have the smallest enrollment and compete with other popular sports in our community, can we create a "paradigm shift" for our program? 

Analogy: If we're hopelessly "out-resourced," how can we compete?

Asymmetrical warfare (American Revolution, Vietnam War, cyberwarfare - see below for "Unrestricted Warfare" review:

Unrestricted Warfare, authored by two Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui (1999), redefines modern conflict. The authors propose that warfare has evolved beyond traditional battlefields to encompass every domain of national life - economic, political, technological, media, legal, environmental, and psychological spheres. The authors inform that in globalized, interdependent world, "everything is a weapon, and everywhere is the battlefield".

Our task varies with our situation - to leverage advantages to overwhelm inferior opponents or to "level the playing field" with tools available to us. 

Lagniappe. Stop and pivot. 

James Clear: The ability to bounce back quickly is a key skill in life. pic.twitter.com/0RkGlxv9ym

— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi) December 11, 2025

Basketball - Applying Principles of "Unrestricted Warfare" to Sport

Sport is not war. The stakes are not life and death. But we can learn from how people think about advantage. There's much to unpack. 

In 1999, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui wrote Unrestricted Warfare, a treatise on how weaker powers might confront military superiority. Their “first principle” is blunt: in modern conflict, anything goes - legal, economic, cyber, disinformation, social, and other tools blend together to create advantage.

Through a sports lens, that idea of “unrestricted” competition is unsettling and instructive. 

Unrestricted doesn’t mean anything is acceptable. It means the toolkit keeps expanding, and we must choose our boundaries.

The Dark Arts: Advantage Becomes Manipulation

History is full of “unconventional tactics” that push - or blow past -the line:

• Overheated visitor locker rooms in the old Boston Garden

• “Deflategate”

• Sign stealing in baseball and football

• Convenient “malfunctions” of visiting team electronics

• Attempts to pilfer playbooks

• Fire alarms going off at visiting team hotels

• “Honeytraps” or gold-digging aimed at professional athletes

• Gambling enticements or allegations

All of these share a theme: trying to win by damaging the opponent rather than developing yourself. That may be “unrestricted,” but it is not who we want to be.

Contemporary Basketball: Legal and “Alternative” Levers

Fast forward to modern basketball and you get a broader, more complex environment. Some levers are rules-based and transparent; others live near the edge.

1. Rules-Based Edges

Coaches have long searched for tactical loopholes:

• “Take fouls” to stop transition (now restricted in the NBA).

• “Hack-a-Shaq” away-from-the-play fouling to exploit poor free throw shooters (limited in the final two minutes of NBA quarters).

These are examples of using the rulebook like a chessboard, until the league adjusts.

2. Financial Arms Race

Money has become a primary battlefield:

• Tiered penalties and luxury taxes discourage building “superteams” with unlimited spending.

• NIL payments in college sports now resemble free agency. Top players sign seven-figure deals; elite prospects can secure multi-million-dollar packages before playing a college minute.

• Under recent legal settlements, schools can directly pay athletes from a capped pool that starts in the tens of millions per year and can grow over time.

• Schools without big football footprints can redirect more of that pool to basketball, creating new recruiting centers of gravity (see St. John's in 2025).

• Coaching salaries escalate in parallel. Witness the coaching arms race to attract, retain, and develop talent.

The result: some programs compete less on schemes and more on checkbooks.

3. Strategic and Analytical

Many organizations now treat analytics as a full department:

• Analytics staffs dissect lineups, actions, and matchups to find hidden edges.

• The “descendants” of Bill James and Moneyball have moved from baseball into basketball, football, and beyond.

• The best programs blend data with coaching wisdom, not data instead of coaching.

4. Technological

Technology is the most visible - and often most ethically acceptable  frontier.

• The Gun and other shooting machines have boosted rep volume and charting since the late 1990s.

• IntelliGym adapts cognitive training first developed for Israeli Air Force pilots into a “video-game” tool for decision-making and court awareness.

• Noah uses overhead sensors and cameras to track arc, depth, and left-right miss on every shot, building a database for shot quality and consistency. Many NBA, WNBA, NCAA, and high school programs rely on it as a feedback system.

• Team tracking systems (Second Spectrum, SportVU, Synergy, and others) record players and the ball in multiple dimensions, tagging actions and play types to study efficiency and outcomes. Spacing, cutting, closeouts, ball screens, defensive rotations - everything becomes data.

Used well, these tools reinforce a simple idea: technology should sharpen fundamentals, not replace them.

5. Sensory and Mental Experience

The frontier roars past conventional boundaries. 

• The Golden State Warriors have used sensory deprivation (float) pods to help players unplug and recover mentally. Steph Curry is often mentioned as a regular user.

• Mindfulness training has become mainstream, with Phil Jackson an early advocate and players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James using meditation and breathing as part of their routines.

• Some media and rumor circles mention microdosing of mind-altering agents like psilocybin, claiming reduced anxiety or better focus. Evidence is limited, legal status is complicated, and health risks are not fully understood. This is a line credible programs should treat with extreme caution.

The message to athletes: we can and should train the mind - but through safe, legal, and ethical methods: mindfulness, breathing, visualization, reflection, and quality rest.

What Does This Mean?

We live in an era of “unrestricted” competition. Almost anything that is not explicitly banned will be tried somewhere by someone.

But for our program, the question is not, “What can we get away with?”
It is, “What kind of edge can we build that we’re proud of?”

We choose to compete in the quadrant that is:

• Legal

• Ethical

• Healthy

That means:

• Master the rules, don't bend them to the breaking point.

• Do our homework on analytics and tech, don't chase every gimmick.

• Invest in strength, conditioning, sleep, nutrition, and recovery.

• Build mental skills with mindfulness, visualization, and honest reflection and relationships. 

• Refuse shortcuts that rely on cheating, manipulation, or risky substances.

Unrestricted thinking helps us see the full battlefield. Our values decide which weapons we pick up - and which we leave on the ground.

Lagniappe. Love Horns? Find a couple to exploit. 

MUST ADD ACTION

“Horns Over 🤘⬆️”

1. Horns Flex
2. Horns B2B
3. horns Get
4. Horns Zoom
5. Horns Pin (Fav)
6. Horns Spanoulis
7. Horns Empty
8. Horns Keep pic.twitter.com/Zt7hZlyXQo

— Dustin Aubert (@dustinaubert) December 12, 2025

Basketball - JDLR - "Just Doesn't Look Right"

"You can observe a lot by just watching." - Yogi Berra

"Seeing" demands looking for what "just doesn't look right." I don't know the officials, players, or coaches in this game and share principles, mostly JDLR situations.

Winning consistently means 'seeing' what JDLR means, teaching players what to do and what not to do, and following up. 

Meaning what? Some examples: 

• Miscellaneous
• On ball pressure
• Awareness
• Spacing and floor balance
• Playing in traffic
• Off ball positioning
• Urgent cutting
• Shot selection

Miscellaneous. 

"Feel for the game..." a player in red moves in the lane for six seconds. The officials didn't call it this time, but they may when it decides a game.  

On ball defense. 

Everything starts with ball pressure. 

Awareness.

Backcourt violation with no pressure. Some players will struggle in open space. Know not to get it to players within their skill set. 

Spacing and floor balance.

Res ipsa loquitur. (The thing speaks for itself.)  

 

Playing in traffic. 

Excellent players "win in space," create separation, and finish. Your parent tells you not to play in the traffic for a reason. 

Off ball defense. 

Good zone defense looks like man defense with pressure on the ball and being in position to help off the ball. Against a team that wants to shoot threes, the low zone defenders are often hugging the paint. 

Urgent cutting.

"Movement kills defense." Defenders are taught to jump to the ball after a pass and urgent cutting sometimes defeats that. "Simple basketball" works. 

Shot selection. 

Every player should know what a good shot is for themselves and teammates. Some teach "ROB" shots - in range, open, balanced. Others say to "Get 7s" on the 1-9 scale because nothing's guaranteed. A parent told me he watched a high school game where over half the shots hit nothing but glass or air. 

It "just doesn't look right" when a team 'airballs' three consecutive shots. 

Lagniappe. Signature moves can apply to offense (McHale move, Sikma move, Dream Shake) or defense. Video on the "Sniper Steal" 

Years ago, Nike ran their Signature Moves series — short films, breaking down offensive skills.

That idea always stuck with me.
Because it showed the details behind the craft.

So over the last couple months, I started my own version — but for defense.

Defense as art.
Defense… pic.twitter.com/PPGYdCzFJI

— Mike Jagacki (@Mike_Jagacki) December 13, 2025

Lagniappe 2. Zoom action becomes a slip and score. 

Danny Hurley and his staff are on a another planet when it comes to half court offense

You know how hard it is to guard this much movement for 40 minutes?

Elite stuff, Elite staff, Elite program

pic.twitter.com/QTaiQnLjsn

— Hoop Herald (@TheHoopHerald) December 13, 2025

Basketball - Under the Magnifying Glass - What Do You See?

“You are what your record says you are.” - Bill Parcells 

“Good basketball” is intentional. 80 percent of drivers think they are better than average. I suspect that coaches are the same. But it’s a zero sum game and we’ve all inhabited both sides of the equation. 

Do a quick self-test on our team, putting process under the magnifying glass. Are our processes consistent with success? Do our players know their responsibilities and buy-in to craft success? They cannot do their job without knowing and paying attention to detail.

Basketball math works for us or against us. Doing well means strong performance in what we do a lot. 

Offense (Quality shot each possession)

• Space the floor. 
• Create advantage (separation) with player and ball movement.
• Deliver passes on time, on target.
• Take quality shots (and make some).
• Avoid turnovers. 

Defense (One bad shot, hard twos)

• Get back in time and engaged in transition.
• Pressure and contain the ball.
• Deny penetration.
• Contest shots without fouling.
• Rebound (seek > 75 percent defensive rebounds).

Failure in any key area can define us. The last team I coached had solid non-basketball (soccer) athletes who struggled to shoot well or to contain the ball in man defense. 

Find and fix one 'need' area...and then move on to the next. 

Ideally, we would have a data collection analysis to evaluate each possession with quantitative and qualitative breakdown. It would need to be automated to handle the data. 

Lagniappe. Enhancing focus could improve the product. 

🔥 🔥 🔥 pic.twitter.com/xz2nfa56U0

— Chris Steed (@steeder10) December 11, 2025

Lagniappe 2. Improving metrics is possible and happening. 

Here are some of the best rookie by a few components of Net Pts/G:
- Driving: Dylan Harper
- 3pt shooting: Knueppel
- Facilitator (asts, bad passes): Flagg
- Glass cleaning (rebs): Harper

Last one surprises me some

Overall best rookies available at https://t.co/McBM90y14x pic.twitter.com/ucgeNWN6Vl

— Dean Oliver (@DeanO_Lytics) December 11, 2025

Basketball Coach George Raveling Tribute Post

"Coaching needs to be less 'here's what you're doing wrong' and more 'here's what you need to do right. -- George Raveling

— Coach the Coaches (@WinningCoaches) December 12, 2025

Call it "the privilege" of lunch with a legend. Most of mine were with great mentors, not famous.

When we "make friends with the dead," we reclaim the chance to lunch with great men or women. Coach George Raveling falls on that list as I never had the privilege to meet him. Coach Raveling died 1 September 2015 at age 88. 

Coach Raveling was with Reverend Martin Luther King on 28 August 1963 when King delivered his famous, "I have a dream" address.

Coach Raveling also wrote an exceptional book about basketball rebounding, "War on the Boards." Those two facts are awkward juxtapositions, from the sacred to the profane.

Coach Raveling also loved books and reading. His website shared that passion, a "me encanta" not a "me gusta" passing fancy. 

A brief digression for commentary from AI about his new book, "What You're Made For." 

Know your purpose

The book circles back to understanding what you’re truly here to do—and aligning your daily choices with that purpose, not just chasing titles, money, or fame.

Turn adversity into advantage

Raveling’s life—growing up in poverty, facing racism, surviving a near-fatal car accident—is a case study in using hardship as fuel.

Relationships are your greatest asset
He emphasizes mentors, friendships, and building people up. Success comes from being a connector and giver, not just a lone striver.

Be a lifelong learner
Curiosity, note-taking, reading, and studying great minds (not just in basketball) are framed as daily disciplines, not occasional events.

Success is service
The book is ultimately a call to matter—to use your opportunities, platform, and “what you’re made of” to make others better, not just to collect wins or trophies.

How will history remember Coach Raveling? He overcame effectively being orphaned as an adolescent and had a string of achievements:

• Played basketball at Villanova and set school rebounding records
• Led the Wildcats to consecutive NIT appearances
• Assistant Coach under Lefty Driesell at Maryland, the first African-American ACC coach
• Had the original copy of Dr. King's speech and was offered $3 millon dollars for it - and turned the offer down...donated it to Villanova in 2021. 
• Coached at multiple universities
• Gold Medal as assistant basketball coach in 1984 Olympics
• Kodak Coach of the Year (1992)
• CBC Coach of the Year (1994)
• College Basketball Hall of Fame (2013)
• Naismith Hall of Fame (2015)

If we could ask Coach Raveling for one enduring piece of advice, he would likely say, "Become the best version of yourself so you can help others become the best version of themselves.”

Lagniappe. Are you willing to sprint when the distance is unknown? 

I keep coming back to this question:

Are you willing to sprint when the distance is unknown?

In 2021, Georgia Tech strength coach Lewis Caralla delivered this epic speech to the football team.

If it doesn’t light a fire under you, check your pulse…

He starts with a series of… pic.twitter.com/sUqbr7yBUS

— Sahil Bloom (@SahilBloom) September 16, 2025

What Does Being a "Team Player" in Basketball Mean?

Former Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich told players to "Figure it out." That followed his admonition to "Get over yourself."  

Selfishness is the root of almost every team problem.

— Alan Stein, Jr. (@AlanSteinJr) December 7, 2025

Every season teaches lessons - some we choose, some we earn the hard way. One of the most painful but productive is this: "experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want." Missed opportunities, tough losses, reduced roles, and disappointing minutes can sting. But they also reveal who we are and who we’re willing to become.

And often, they collide with one of the great threats to team success - the “Killer S’s”: selfishness, softness, and sloth.

There’s not much worse in team sports than being labeled selfish, soft, or lazy. It’s not critique of talent or basketball IQ. It’s an indictment of character.

Individual vs. Team: Why Selfishness Matters More Here

In golf, chess, or bowling, you’re responsible only to yourself. You cannot be “too selfish” on the PGA Tour unless it’s the Ryder Cup.

But team sports are different. The Prime Directive is simple:

Team First.

In baseball, it’s literally called a sacrifice.
In football, it shows up in blocking for someone else’s glory.
In basketball, it’s screens, box-outs, help defense, and the extra pass that creates a great shot over a good one.

None of these make SportsCenter. All of them build winners.

What Team Players Actually Do

Elite teammates share common habits - habits available to every player, not just the most athletic ones:

Team players…

• Energize the group with effort, voice, and presence.

• Encourage teammates without waiting for permission.

• Play for the scoreboard, not the scorebook.

• Practice hard, knowing they make the team better by making each other better.

• Don’t whine, complain, or make excuses.

• Stay engaged on the bench, because focus is a choice, not a substitution pattern.

• Set the standard - on the court, in the classroom, and in the community.

These behaviors require no vertical jump, no shooting percentage, no highlight clips. Just commitment.

What Actually Hurts the Most

Most players will never know the feeling of being a great scorer or the star in the local paper. That’s reality.

But there is a label no one wants on their legacy:

“Bad teammate.”

Talent fades. Stats disappear. But reputation - how you treated people, how you competed, how you responded to adversity sticks.

And that’s where the opening line comes back.

Disappointment gives us a choice:
Do I grow from this, or do I shrink?
Do I serve the team, or do I serve myself?

Experience earned through setbacks, gives players the chance to decide who they want to be. The teams that thrive are the ones where players choose contribution over complaint, responsibility over resentment, team over self.

Because in the end, greatness in team sport isn’t about shining the brightest.

Make the whole brighter because you’re in it. 

Lagniappe. Be patient. 

Today matters. What you do right now matters.
Be urgent with your actions — bring energy, intention, and focus to the process.

But be patient with the results.
Great outcomes take time.

Urgency in the work.
Patience in the payoff.

🔥 Watch the clip. pic.twitter.com/lielZSAaq8

— Alan Stein, Jr. (@AlanSteinJr) December 10, 2025

Lagniappe 2. Stay in the fight. 

John Harbaugh shares one of the best definitions of failure and resilience.

"The only failure in life is not getting back up. When you get knocked down and stay down then you're a failure. But you're never a failure if you get back up."

"The only person who can make you quit is… pic.twitter.com/32xGWFuktA

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) December 10, 2025

Core Basketball Concept: Improving Your Position

"Always improve your fighting position." - Jack Carr in "True Believer"

What does that mean for basketball players in theory and in practice? In battle, many factors go into "fighting position" - access for entry and egress, elevation, cover, vision, and field of fire are some. 

Our fighting position in basketball includes: 

Conditioning

Poorly conditioned teams lose both territory and resilience. 

Individual defense  

Stance, on ball versus off ball positioning, proximity to assignment, quickness, communication, anticipation and reaction, decision-making, and ability to cover yours and help (cover 1.5) separate a valuable defender from a jag - just another guy. 

Offense  

Spacing opens driving and passing lanes, makes double teaming harder, as well as providing headaches for help and recover defenses. 

"Basketball is a game of separation." Improve separation with technigue - urgent cutting, setting up cuts, using teammates (screens), alertness (is our defender a head turner?), and with the ball separation using footwork, change of direction (e.g. crossovers, between the legs) and change of pace (hesitation, extra gear). 

Rebounding

Excellent defensive rebounders leverage position and toughness. Offensive rebounders excel at anticipation and quickness to the ball. Rebounding prowess helps end an opponent's possessions and prolong ours. 

Transition

Teams create advantage with rapid conversion (offense to defense - defense to offense) and know how to get numerical advantage (offense) and prevent easy baskets by stopping the ball, protecting the basket, and delaying initiation of opponent offense.

The analogy is clear that the military mandate to "improve fighting position" applies equally to basketball, although with different stakes. An old saying goes that "Basketball isn't a matter of life or death. It's more important than that." 

Lagniappe. Zoom action into an elevator/sandwich screen. 

Lagniappe 2. Zoom stagger from Chris Oliver 

Run zoom actions? Here is an effective way to blend in some pick the picker actions. pic.twitter.com/RPCrKvMwqq

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) December 10, 2025

Lagniappe 3. Pro sports have embraced Stoic philosophy. Stoic principles...much suffering is self-inflicted.

4 brutally honest reminders from Seneca:

1. Most suffering is self-inflicted
2. Stop putting things off
3. Stop acting like you’re going to live forever
4. Seek out challenges

— Daily Stoic (@dailystoic) December 7, 2025

Basketball- Reducing Unforced Errors

“What you can do, however, is strive to make fewer unforced errors over time by using sound judgment and techniques to make the best decision at any given time.”
- Super Thinking, Gabriel Weinberg & Lauren McCann

Life is full of unforced errors - mistakes that aren’t caused by overwhelming pressure, but by lapses in judgment, execution, or preparation. They are often painful and sometimes game-changing. They separate success from failure more often than raw talent ever does.

We all know them:

• Missing an exit on the highway

• Leaving out or mis-measuring an ingredient

• Misreading a test question

• Missing a page on a standardized exam

• A scheduling misunderstanding that means missing the bus

• A breakdown in communication at the worst possible moment

Basketball is no different.

At its core, winning comes down to a simple truth:
Against good teams, you must score points and give fewer away.

Unforced errors are points donated.

Unforced Errors in Basketball

Unforced errors generally fall into three categories:

1. Decision-related errors

These reflect judgment.

• Driving or passing into traffic 

• Poor shot selection - not balanced, not open, out of range

• Bad fouls - fouling bad shots and perimeter shots

• Going for a steal when it’s not there

• Decision-related turnovers (e.g. wing-to-top gift passes)

Good decisions don’t guarantee points - but bad ones almost guarantee losses.

2. Execution-related errors

These reflect skill and consistency.

• Failure to pressure the ball

• Poor free throw shooting

• Exposing the ball to aggressive defenders

• Bad blockouts

• Poor transition defense - lackadaisical or "buddy running"

Execution errors shrink with repetition, focus, and attention to detail.

3. Behavioral errors

These reflect professionalism — and they matter more than we like to admit.

• Poor academic habits including studying game planning

• “Missed movement” (late for practice, missing the bus)

• Violations of chemical health policy

• Breaking team rules

• Misuse of social media

These errors don’t show up on the stat sheet - but they always show up on the scoreboard eventually.

The Separation Point

Exceptional players - and exceptional teams - reduce unforced errors over time. They sharpen decision-making, improve execution, and hold themselves to standards of professional behavior.

Talent scores points. Judgment protects them.

The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is fewer self-inflicted wounds - today than yesterday, this season more than last.

That’s winning the hidden game.

Lagniappe. Bring "competitive joy" to the court.

Lagniappe 2. Selfishness distills to the "Holy Triad" of minutes, shots, and recognition. 

Selfishness is the root of almost every team problem.

— Alan Stein, Jr. (@AlanSteinJr) December 7, 2025