A MacGuffin has significance but isn't "central" to the story. I worked with Ralph Labella as an assistant for over a decade, until the Rec Department insisted we work separately to spread the quality around. Ralph preached, "Play good basketball," a worthy goal. It reflected the Bill Walsh, "The Score Takes Care of Itself" mode.
I asked ChatGPT to rank the top five "MacGuffins" in basketball. In a way, they can "distract" from the good basketball theme.
With starting clearly #1, I'd rank the strongest basketball MacGuffins by how well they fit Hitchcock's idea and how much coaching mileage you can get from them:
- Starting — The best fit. The coveted object is the starting position; the real story is trust, contribution, development, and impact on winning.
- Playing time — Closely related, but broader. Players pursue minutes when the more productive pursuit is becoming someone whose skills and reliability demand minutes. Don't chase minutes; chase value.
- Scoring — The box score makes points look like the object of basketball. But efficient offense involves spacing, screening, passing, cutting, shot quality, turnovers, offensive rebounding—the invisible architecture producing the points.
- The last play / last shot — Excellent because it illustrates outcome bias. Everyone remembers the missed jumper at 0:03 and forgets the bad possessions that made the jumper necessary. The final possession is dramatic; it isn't necessarily decisive.
- Awards / rankings / recognition — All-State, captaincy, rankings, scholarships, statistics, social-media recognition. They're desirable outcomes, but pursuing them directly can distract from the behaviors that might produce them.
How coaches see the world:
1. Starting. People criticize coaches for lineups. Players define the lineups. Coaches put trusted competitors on the court.
2. Playing time. Coach Ellis Lane reminded us, "It's not who starts, it's who finishes." In development mode, everyone needs to play, but I'd count the seconds down until I could get Cecilia or Samantha back in the game.
3. Scoring. Scoring absolutely matters. But it's one component of good basketball - playing the game the right way, competing, toughness.
4. Last play. In a game with 150 possessions, we choose to say, "this lost us the game or won us the game." Our high school team lost by one on a missed shot. The opponent had scored the first two hoops on failed blockouts with putbacks. Every second counts.
5. Recognition. Seek contribution over recognition. That's a hard pill for many to swallow.
Are there more MacGuffins out there for you?
Keep the main thing the main thing.
Lagniappe. Do you have any questions for me?