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Monday, December 29, 2025

Coloring Outside the Lines - When Coaching Isn't Coaching

Life trains us to color inside the lines. Society works because most of us accept norms of fairness, order, and restraint. Coaching lives in the same domain. 

Great programs win because of consistent, transparent habits. Competitive advantage in basketball comes from preparation, execution, and culture, not intimidation or bending rules until they break.

But recurring subplots emerge:

  • Winning at any cost

  • Talent aggregation above all else

  • Officials put under pressure

  • Physical play that crosses boundaries

Where the Blur Begins

Ego and winning tempt some coaches to step outside the boundaries:

  • Preferring “home town referees” instead of neutral crews

  • Recruiting with a mindset of “collect assets first, teach later”

  • Normalizing “Gorilla Ball” physicality under the banner of toughness

  • Coaching moving screens and illegal contact as if they’re strategy

  • Treating officials as objects to outmaneuver

There’s a difference between hard and harmful basketball:

  • Clean physical play? Yes. (Solid screens, legal box-outs, competitive hands.)

  • “Gorilla Ball” to remove players? No. That’s not basketball. That’s damage. We had four players taken out in one game. 

  • Testing limits? Yes. Every system probes boundaries. Teaching players to weaponize illegal actions? No. 

Coaches Messages Reveal Intent

The tell is often language. You've heard lines coaches crossed:

  • “They can’t call a foul every time.”

  • “They can’t call the game from the stands.”

  • “Winning is the only thing.”

  • “The end proves me right.”

You can win a game while losing your honor. 

The Ethical Line Isn’t Abstract

It’s practical. It protects:

  • The players

  • The officials

  • The fans

  • The sport

  • The classroom basketball becomes for young athletes

When coaches teach:

  • “Sportsmanship doesn’t matter”

  • “Winning is the only thing”

  • “Rules are suggestions”

They’ve stopped coaching basketball and started coaching ego.

Coaching, Like Banking, Needs Stress Tests

The Fed evaluates banks to ensure they survive pressure. Basketball programs need their own version:

Can your offense survive without illegal screens?
Can your defense contain without fouling?
Can your culture win without casualties?
Can your language teach accountability instead of excuses?

If the answer requires “Well, technically…”, you’re off the court already

A Jury of Our Peers

Most coaches coach the sport. Some coach the scoreboard. A few coach the rules until the rules collapse. Those outliers deserve warnings -  retraining or removal.

Basketball excellence is public domain. Harm is preventable.
Basketball advantage is habits, not harm. Teaching violence isn't teaching the game. 

Lagniappe. Winning demands sacrifice. 

Lagniappe 2. Better offense spills into defense.  






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