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Thursday, November 27, 2025

Basketball - "Coachspeak"

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Words matter - not just in what we say, but in how we say them.

Coaches speak thousands of sentences in a season. We explain, we demand, we challenge, we praise. But we don’t always know what lands. Six months after one postgame meeting, I overheard a player say, “That line about how you play being how you live - that stuck with me.” I had told them this:

"You cannot let opponents push you around - not physically, not mentally. You cannot live your life that way."

Some messages sit quietly until the right moment brings them to life.

What Do We Remember?

Think about the coaching that stayed with you. A few of mine:

  • “Sacrifice.”
    Give up a good shot so someone else can get a great one.

  • “If I stop yelling at you, it’s because I’ve given up on you.”
    He never stopped yelling.

  • “Family. School. Basketball. In that order.”
    No confusion, no debate.

And the one from John McPhee’s A Sense of Where You Are. Princeton’s Butch van Breda Kolff wrote words in huge letters on the chalkboard:

GIRLS
FOOD
BASKETBALL

The message wasn’t subtle. Focus determines destiny. Princeton reached the Final Four.

Sacrifice. Detail. Commitment.

Sacrifice means giving something up so the team gains. Detail is the difference between winning and almost. One lapse - one missed rotation, one lazy pass - can cost a game or a season. Commitment means daily focus.

When Delivery Creates Legacy - or Damage

Content alone isn’t enough. Delivery matters.

A coach can fire up a team or fracture it with a single sentence.

In medicine years ago, I heard a world-renowned clinician tell a trainee in front of a packed room:

“You don’t know because you don’t care.”

It was cruel, dismissive, and unnecessary - a masterclass in how not to teach. Fame and position never grant the right to humiliate.

What we say matters. How we say it matters more. Words can sharpen a team or shatter it. They can lift a player to belief or break one down to silence.

Coaching lives in the space between message and delivery. Get both right, and you don’t just win games, you win people.

Lagniappe. From Bill Bradley's "Life on the Run"  "With team defense understood, pressure defense is assured, and with pressure defense the game’s emphasis shifts from muscle to quickness, from pure individual physical skill to coordinated, intelligent group responses."

Lagniappe 2. Don Kelbick shares, "designated shooter." 

Lagniappe 3. An overplay gets punished. 

 

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