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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Basketball - FI Cards, "Shaking the Tree"

"What belongs on your FI Card'?" In Michael Connelly crime novels (e.g. Bosch, The Lincoln Lawyer, Ballard), the Los Angeles PD Field Interview card was a 3" x 5" card with identifying data (name, date of birth, where stopped, why, officer) and additional comments on the back.)

Connelly says LAPD called them "shake cards" with disrespect to an ACLU action referring to the stops as "shakedowns." 

From ChatGPT:

Purpose

The goal was to:

  • Build intelligence files

  • Track known or suspected gang members

  • Create a paper trail of interactions

  • Assist in later investigations (e.g., who was in the area of a crime)

"Card after card contained records of interviews with individuals who were aimlessly roaming the streets, looking for whatever grim opportunity presented itself...with no seeming plan to change their situation." - Michael Connelly in Dark Sacred Night

At basketball tryouts, players got a colored tee shirt with a number on it. That was "minimal identifying data" and evaluators made judgments without knowing names or parentage, measurables, hopes, dreams. Usually, there were three or four "evaluators." Not saying it was either a good or bad system, just limited. 

They didn't even get a 3 x 5 card...just a few notes next to their number on the sheet on a clipboard. 

For a tryout that might last 1-2 hours (if two sessions), there were no categories or metrics - offense, defense, rebounding, ball handling, etc. and no grading system, e.g. 1 to 4. 

Maybe we weren't deluding ourselves that a limited evaluation functioned like Swiss watch engineers instead of drug-addled monkeys. 

What I'd want on the back of the card:

1) One sentence statement: "This is why I want to play basketball."

2) Evaluator general impressions: High energy, athletic

3) Skill - primary skill is _________________

4) Potential role: e.g. 3&D, point guard, dominant rebounder

5) Overall impression: top 10%, 25%, 50%, bottom 50%

As an evaluator for younger U14, U12s I'm looking to make general projections. If an 11 or 12 year-old has excellent size and athleticism but limited skill, I'm intrigued. Did they hustle, did they have a presence? None are finished products. 

I knew elite physicians who filled out a 3" x 5" card on every patient they consulted upon. They were not part of the medical record. I don't know what they wrote on those cards. One of them was as kind and thoughtful as imaginable while another was a "mean buzzard" highly respected in his field. Both the MDs and the patient's care derived something from the cards. Most professionals make 'mental notes'. The act of writing things down changes the thought process. 

Lagniappe. Attitude. 

Lagniappe 2. Always interested in coaches' process: 

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