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Saturday, February 7, 2026

Basketball - Contemplating "HOW" 

SIX HONEST SERVING MEN - Rudyard Kipling
I keep six honest serving-men
   (They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When 
   And How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,
   I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
   I give them all a rest. 

I let them rest from nine till five,
    For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
   For they are hungry men.

But different folk have different views; 
  I know a person small—
She keeps ten million serving-men,
  Who get no rest at all! 

She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
   From the second she opens her eyes—
One million Hows, two million Wheres, 

  And seven million Whys!  

An argument exists that "HOW" is the captain of Kipling's "Six Honest Serving Men. 

"How" distinguishes added value and differentiates a person and organizations. Developing your "HOW" could separate an extraordinary future from an ordinary one. We can debate whether Dov Seidman's "HOW" or Simon Sinek's "WHY" assumes priority. 

HOW

Synonyms for "HOW" include process or approach. Process varies as much as mountains from prairies. Process balances key elements such as Saban's "immediacy, intelligence, and intensity." 

My son reports how our nine year-old granddaughter is progressing at basketball in the ATL. My advice was this, tell her "we loved watching you play." Make it about joy not production or pressure. 

Basketball

  • Relationships a top priority
  • Teamwork essential, get "all oars in the water"
  • Simplicity with everyone "on the same page"

HOW we lead, think, and behave

Emphasizing HOW separates process from results. And more. 

There's a story about the discovery of a remarkable frog with mesmerizing iridescent violet eyes. A geneticist says, we can collect some DNA from the frog's mouth or skin, sequence the genome, and discover the protein coding for the eye color. A biochemist says, "we can pop out the eyes and put 'em in the Waring blender and isolate the protein fast." The answer makes all the difference for the frog. 

Basketball keys

  • Make quality decisions
  • "Get more and better possessions than the opponent"
  • Play harder for longer
HOW trust is built

Trust comes from sharing - shared vision, shared mission, shared sacrifice. Trust makes everyone better via shared work. Trust encompasses coachability, preparation, and attention to high standards during the season and offseason, practice and games. 

Basketball trust:
  • Commitment to making others better
  • Sacrificing with one more pass, giving up shots, taking hits
  • Impacting winning
A teammate explained why he voted for me to be captain. It was a scrimmage and you hit the floor, saved the ball, and took out another player. It was a football play. 

"How you do anything is how you do everything."

Lagniappe. I'm reading "How." An AI take about Dov Seidman's "How" 

Dov Seidman’s book How is about the way things are done—values, behaviors, and culture—not shortcuts. That maps cleanly onto basketball success, especially at the team and program level.

Here are five basketball-specific translations of Seidman’s core ideas:

1. “How you play” becomes your competitive advantage

Seidman argues that how an organization behaves is its moat. In basketball, this shows up as:

  • Defensive habits (early help, sprint recovery)

  • Shot selection discipline

  • Ball movement under pressure

Basketball lens:
Two teams can run the same sets. The one that screens with force, spaces honestly, and makes the extra pass wins. The “how” is the separator.

2. Culture beats talent when pressure rises

Seidman emphasizes that values-driven cultures scale and endure—especially under stress.

Basketball translation:

  • Late-game execution

  • Road games

  • Tournament settings

Teams that share values (accountability, toughness, unselfishness) default to the right play when the game speeds up. Talent alone doesn’t hold under pressure—habits do.

3. Shortcuts poison trust

A central theme in How is that cutting corners corrodes credibility—even if it works temporarily.

On the court:

  • Taking bad shots “because I can”

  • Jogging back after a miss

  • Skipping film or recovery work

Result:
Trust erodes. Teammates stop covering for each other. Defensive cohesion cracks. Winning becomes fragile.

Great teams are anti-shortcut organizations.

4. Leadership is behavior, not title

Seidman is explicit: leadership is modeled, not declared.

Basketball version:

  • Who talks in huddles?

  • Who sprints to the next drill?

  • Who owns mistakes publicly?

Captains don’t lead by speeches. They lead by how they practice, how they respond to fouls, how they treat officials and teammates.

5. Reputation is built when no one’s watching

Seidman stresses that integrity is revealed in unseen moments.

Basketball parallels:

  • Extra shooting after practice

  • Film study without being assigned

  • Conditioning on off-days

  • Effort in blowouts (up or down)

Those behaviors don’t show in box scores—but they compound into postseason performance.

One line that fits a locker room wall

Everybody knows what to do. Winners know how to do it—every possession.

Lagniappe 2. Defensive core concepts from Kevin Eastman. How it's done well. 

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