Know your audience. In a book, article, or interview, you address a variety of 'constituencies'. Do you want to inform, educate, correct, raise questions, or have some other intent?
The "Bully" Pulpit
Don't be a bully. "Listen, you have no right to criticize me or question my basketball decisions." Remember Chuck Daly's advice, "never get in an argument with a guy who buys ink by the barrel."
You want to address the reporter's question, but do so in a manner not to insult either the questioner or possible targets of the question. If someone asks a "gotcha" question like, "Is it true that there's a morale problem on the team?" find a way to answer, however evasive. "On any given day, in any family or organization, we have ups and downs. And we communicate about them within the family because that's what families do."
Fandom
Bobby Knight had it right, "If you listen to the fans in the stands, soon you'll be up there sitting next to them." As a messenger, you don't have to be dismissive or question their intelligence. "It's always a difficult decision to assign minutes to a given player against a certain lineup, depending on the matchups, player strengths and limitations."
The Team
"It's true that we didn't play our best tonight. We've worked hard to prepare them to compete every night. Maybe we overworked them recently and they didn't have as much "stuffing" tonight." Rather than blame them for a lack of effort directly, you're shifting the responsibility off them and onto yourself.
Your Opponent
Give credit to the opposing team, their coaches, and their administration. "Those guys work hard, prepare hard, and competed hard in tonight's game. If we didn't play well at times, their players and scheme had a significant role."
The Basketball Community
Every game has meaning. "When we play well and succeed, we want to understand what we did and why we won. We also want to understand where we didn't do well and find ways to clean that up in the future. Win or lose, engage the process of "teamwork, improvement, and accountability. We won tonight and we're pleased but we're not satisfied. We want to be harder to play against every time out."
Colin Powell shared perspective in "It Worked for Me." Here are a few of his suggestions:
1. They get to pick the question. You get to pick the answer.
2. You don't have to answer any question you don't want to.
3. Never lie...beware of being too open.
4. Never reveal private advice you have given your superiors.
5. Answers should be directed to the message you want readers/viewers to get. The interviewers are not your audience.
Lagniappe. Many scouting questions address "possession enders."
Scouting made simple:
— Hoops Companion 🏀 Resources for Coaches (@Hoops_Companion) February 14, 2026
- who can shoot it from 3?
- who do we need to keep off the glass?
- who are the two players we need to take away?
- what do they run defensively?
- what 2-3 things do they run most offensively?
