Learn across domains. First, a quote from Walter Isaacson's biography, "Elon Musk."
"It was a philosophy that he would carry through to Tesla, SpaceX, and then Twitter. Separating the design of a product from its engineering was a recipe for dysfunction. Designers had to feel the immediate pain if something they devised was hard to engineer."
Understand the possible linkages between your basketball design (e.g. ideas, program building) and engineering (implementation).
Implementation could include:
- Player acquisition (e.g. recruiting, youth programs)
- Player development
- Offensive and defensive systems
- Budgeting/fundraising/compensation
- Coaching staff
- Compliance
- Public relations
My high school coach, Sonny Lane, explained that a coach proposed an offensive system to him, saying, "I understand it perfectly." Coach Lane answered, "Your players will never understand it." The 'engineering' mismatched the design.
Coaching youth players, I considered a "run and jump" ("trap and go") secondary defensive system and it became clear that our players or my teaching would not work. The engineering failed.
Design counts and practical engineering, the 'nuts and bolts' of implementation, absolutely matters. Thus, the popularity of 'five-out' and 'horns', as well as conceptually simple actions like 'zoom' (downscreen into DHO) and pistol.
Believing that NBA actions readily translate into youth and lower level play recalls Pete Newell's warning, "copies are generally poor reproductions of the originals."
The take home should be to invest time to consider how theory will transfer to practice.
Lagniappe. Quote from Kobe Bryant's The Mamba Mentality, "What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths."
Lagniappe 2. Short-lived edges...from 49ers executive Kwesi Adofo-Mensah "You think you have an edge—now, that edge goes away in this business, just like that. Every year you have to tweak, evolve, adapt.”" - from "The Why Is Everything" by Michael Silver.
Lagniappe 3. Playing Time
This is an amazing outlook on playing time
— Hoop Herald (@TheHoopHerald) May 26, 2025
Young players watch this
“Stop trying to blame it on the coaches..what are you doing to give the coaches confidence to put you on the court?”
(Via @BballCoachMac 🎥)
pic.twitter.com/BxjNMqWu3B
