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Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Lincoln and Coaching

“Make friends with the dead.” A small fraction of people ever born are alive (around seven percent). Lunch with Lincoln could enlighten all of us…

Character

"Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." Focus on out authenticity not on external validation.  

Euroleague Champion coach and former Spurs' assistant Etorre Messina said, "Character is job one." 

Preparation

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Elite preparation raises performance and lowers the chance of regret. 

Professionalism means preparation. Have you studied your opponent and have a plan to counter?

Teamwork

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." It's exceedingly rare for fractured teams to succeed. The most notable exception was the 1978 Yankees, the Bronx Zoo. 

Mark Cuban coined coined what he calls the “one knucklehead rule”, famously saying: “I have this rule: a team can have one knucklehead. You can't have two. One knucklehead adapts; two hang out together.”

Persistence and Growth 

"I am a slow walker, but I never walk back." A growth mindset achieves remarkable feats. This recalls the Russian "General Who Never Lost," Alexander Suvorov, whose motto was "Always forward." Another great Suvorov quote was, "We are here to fight, not to count."

All great teams and individuals are persistent.

Success (1) 

"The best way to predict your future is to create it." Don't assign blame for our limitations and playing time to the coaching staff. Through preparation and practice, force coaches to put you on the court. 

Coaches assign playing time but it's the players who reinforce it with their actions. 

Success (2)

"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Lincoln lost many elections before breaking through. Progress often comes in fits and starts. Plateaus are common. Keep grinding. 

John Wooden won his first NCAA title at UCLA in his sixteenth season. As Bill Walsh said, "Champions behave like champions before they are champions." 

Judgment and bias 

"I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better." Our first judgment may not be our best, limited by sample size or poor communication. Coaching and administration depends on quality relationships.   

First impressions matter but sometimes it takes time for us to understand a person's or a player's character and potential...

Lagniappe. Add tools. 

Lagniappe 2. Coach Wooden said that Bill Walton's greatness arose in that he never tired of working on fundamentals, especially footwork. 

 


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