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Sunday, January 26, 2025

Basketball - "We Hold These Truths"

Winning is hard. It extracts a variety of prices from those who want it. 

"Trust but verify." Ask players for their ideas. 

1. Finishing kick. Close out games with situational awareness, good decisions, and consistent execution. Teams need sufficient basketball IQ and experience to win close games. 

2. Get stops. Do the math. Trading baskets doesn't close deficits. Stops fuel comebacks. Know what gets stops - ball pressure, denying penetration, contesting shots without fouling, defensive rebounding. Good team defense starts with excellent individual defense. 

3. Winning progression. Teams evolve with their ability to beat bad teams at home, bad teams on the road, good teams at home, and good teams on the road. Teams that don't beat good teams cannot claim to inhabit their neighborhood. 

4. Traffic in specifics. Understand what playing hard, smart, and together mean. Give and get feedback. 

5. No excuses. Give people excuses not to and they will seize them. Don't blame fatigue, injuries, officiating. As Joe Mazzulla would say, "Nobody cares." Why make excuses? They are "our mind’s way of protecting our ego, shielding us from the harsh reality of our own shortcomings." 

6. Philosophy major. Some quotes play. Phil Jackson's resonates, "basketball is sharing." Another is Pete Newell's, "get more and better shots than opponents." If we do neither, expect to lose. 

7. Shot creation. When a team "has to have it," where do the physical, strategic, and emotional resources arise? 

8. No complacency. Joe Mazzulla said, "when we win, how can we improve ten to fifteen possessions" that weren't good? Do we know the spacing, reads, matchups to exploit? 

Lagniappe. Be the best at what requires no talent. 

Lagniappe 2. Deal with stuff before it's a problem.  

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