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Leadership and coaching often feel like endless problem-solving. Poor shot selection. Turnovers. Communication breakdowns. Missed assignments. The list never ends.
But as John Maxwell reminds us in The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player, the best leaders aren’t problem-oriented — they’re solution-oriented.
He tells the story of John Walsh, whose six-year-old son Adam was kidnapped and murdered in 1981. Walsh could have been consumed by anger or paralysis. Instead, he founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which helped raise the recovery rate of missing children to over 90 percent. That converted pain into purpose.
Maxwell’s lesson: problems are a matter of perspective. They define us or refine us.
From Basketball to Life: The Same Choice
Every team faces recurring issues — poor spacing, careless turnovers, soft transition defense. Those are not moral failings; they’re diagnoses. Like a doctor naming an illness, as a cause is identified, prescribe treatment.
The danger comes when we allow issues to become habits of defeat. A missed rotation becomes a shrug. A turnover becomes a pattern.
And that’s where Kevin Eastman’s pragmatic wisdom kicks in:
Do it better.
Do it harder.
Change personnel.
If it ain’t working, change the strategy.
That’s a coach’s version of solution orientation. Don’t curse the problem — cure it.
Stretch or Stop
Every problem either stretches us or stops us. If we face it honestly, it stretches our discipline, focus, and creativity. If we avoid it, it stops growth cold.
Eastman says the best teams “live the truth, tell the truth, and take the truth.” Identifying a problem is only half the truth; taking action completes it.
Choosing Solutions
In sports and leadership, solvable problems masquerade as crises:
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Poor communication? Set clearer terminology and routines.
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Inattention? Shorten drills and increase engagement.
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Bad spacing or timing? Use film, not frustration, to teach awareness.
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Low energy? Redefine accountability and ownership.
The difference between a losing team and a learning team isn’t the absence of problems — it’s the presence of solutions.
The Question Worth Asking
When something’s not working, before frustration takes over, ask:
“What obvious solution is right in front of us?”
Often it’s not a new offense, a new drill, or a new player. It’s a renewed commitment to doing the fundamentals better, harder, and smarter. Transform challenges into catalysts — and make the leap from merely surviving problems to solving them.
Lagniappe. Another shooting approach.
“Spurs 100” shooting workout that she is referring to ⬇️ https://t.co/oXmLftDW5Q pic.twitter.com/5LK7OSVzPj
— Anthony Pugh (@Anthony_Pugh2) October 4, 2025
