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Friday, August 15, 2025

Basketball - Seeking Value

Add and recognize value.  People measure us by our reputation and our contribution. Rich Paul offers a simple AI prompt: “What’s a simple way to track what I’m contributing to the business?”

In sports, the player–coach relationship is a value exchange.

  • As a coach: How am I adding value to the player?

  • As a player: Do I trust the coach’s care and concern for me?

We’re always either seeking value or creating it. And in both directions, words—and how they land—matter. These questions and comments have stuck with me:

  1. “What does our team need now?” – Brad Stevens
    Coaching is bottom-line work; production is the scorecard. Yet survival isn’t just about strength—it’s about flexibility.

  2. “How can I get better TODAY?” – Kevin Durant
    Even elite performance can slip without intentional effort. Durant, one of the game’s greatest scorers, reminds us to keep pushing daily.

  3. “Cooks cook to nurture people.” – Thomas Keller
    Coaches nurture players. Like Chuck Daly said, “I’m a salesman.” Sometimes players don’t buy, but the intent to serve remains.

  4. “How can I help?”
    The willingness to help shows humility. Ego resists sacrifice; service requires it.

  5. “Nobody is too good to be coached.” – Sean McVay
    Great coaches search for an edge everywhere—Brad Stevens observed Belichick’s efficiency, and a UConn women’s practice revealed the power of skill and tempo.

  6. “Our patients are our best teachers.” – Dr. Faith Fitzgerald
    The game teaches us, too. We learn from players, opponents, and situations—like when an opposing middle school coach told his team to foul Cecilia Kay constantly. She went 16-for-20 at the line. Lesson: they can call more fouls than you want.

Lagniappe. We can't be Spoelstra. Be you. 

Lagniappe 2. Shooting drills from Coach Haefner.  

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