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Thursday, August 7, 2025

Basketball - Experience

"Experience is the best teacher, but sometimes the tuition is high."

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted."

"As he had aged, Legal had lost most of the social filters normally employed in polite company. “Thanks, Legal,” I said. “I can always count on you for a fair and accurate take on my lot in life. It’s refreshing.” - from "The Gods of Guilt" by Michael Connelly

Young coaches get criticized as "lacking experience." Old coaches face criticism for being out of touch. 

Reflect on the most important lessons from our basketball lives, taught by coaches, peers, critics. 

"You can only be as good as your self-belief." Henry Ford said, "Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right." Competence instills confidence. 

Apply today: Body postures matter. Make yourself big. 

Sacrifice. Coach Ellis Lane told us again and again. Sacrifice. Sacrifice shows up in many ways on the court. Sacrifice your body and hit the floor, take a charge, fight through hard screens, hold the block out. Don't take a shot when a teammate has a better shot. 

Apply: The Celtics Big Three of Pierce, Garnett, and Allen all reduced shots per game during the 2008 title year. 

"Do five more." Author Dan Pink shares this expression. Read five more pages, study five more minutes, lift five more reps. "Champions do extra." It's not enough to do five more; do five more well. 

Apply: Do the work, not just the time. 

"Good ideas come from anywhere." Read a lot and stay open to ideas from other disciplines. Remember what Edison said about invention..."invention comes from imagination, persistence, and analogy."

Applied: Steve Kerr listened to videographer Nick U'Ren and went small with Iguodala over Bogut and beat the Cavaliers. 

"Hunt for tips." In Runnin' the Show, Dick DeVenzio writes, "Make sure your players know the difference between things that need thought and things that need reactions. Maybe even more important, make sure you know the difference." Nobel Laureate Danny Kahneman described two types of thinking, System 1 (reflexive) and System 2 (reflective). Strategy is reflective and execution often reflexive. 

Apply: Small-sided games gets more touches. Cognitive work (strategy) develops your automatic side (reflexive). 

"I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied." Complacency is the beginning of decline. A Red Sox player earned a massive contract. He was overheard in the clubhouse saying, "Nothing else matters. I got paid." From then on, this All-Star pitcher had a sub .500 career. Accountability vanished. He got paid and fans got stuck with the check. 

Apply: set specific goals for transition hoops allowed and kills (three consecutive stops)

Attention to detail. The most painful losses usually come from mental mistakes, a lack of attention to detail, a failure to verify instructions, game plans gone awry. Almost invariably, "failure to communicate" leads to failure to execute. 

Apply: Quiz players about specific game plans. "If this, then what?"

"Be where your feet are." Know the court boundaries, lighting conditions, how the officials are calling the game. Traffic in specifics. This is how we lineup during timeouts, who tracks timeouts and fouls, what defense we're playing. 

Apply: Don't commit violations being unaware of the lane or catching a ball out of bounds. 

Lagniappe. Slip sliding away. 

Lagniappe 2. Commitment is primary. 

Lagniappe 3. Have a plan to play fast. 


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