Basketball education, fundamentals, opinion, video and more
Live Last read · last published · next check
In 1992, Kurt Warner was the backup QB at Northern Iowa. He was more talented than the starter, but couldn't get on the field. So he asked why. Their answer stunned him... He called it the "greatest lesson he ever learned about life and football." (📌Bookmark this) pic.twitter.com/bSZpQEybFE — Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) August 16, 2026 Summary: "Be your best, daily, at practice…
Elite student-athletes communicate well - verbal, nonverbal, presentation. Coaches are educators who can help our athletes perform better in class, too. That includes using better presentation slides. View on Threads For example, here's a messy, embarrassing slide (mea culpa - my bad ). Both the original and the updated slides are created with ChatGPT Plus. Make slides that can leave an immediate…
Gregg Popovich has always been about more than basketball. TEAM. Trust. Adversity. Roles. Unselfishness. Doing the right thing. 10 lessons from one of the greatest coaches of all time. A lot of GOLD in this graphic. https://t.co/N1yNCM2bBY pic.twitter.com/l1EgtTWSpi — Greg Berge (@GregBerge) August 16, 2026 Apply the "William Forrester" principle from Finding Forrester. Use help from others to get…
We Are All "Misaeng." We are "incomplete" because every day offers us opportunities to improve our attitude, choices, and effort. I'm a "Thursday's child." The saying, "Thursday's child has far to go," can mean either great achievement or much room for improvement. I choose to believe it means both. Here are twenty coaching and life reminders from Misaeng: Incomplete Life . I encourage all coaches…
Image from ChatGPT Plus What commonalities do winning programs share? They don't beat themselves. They win on the road. They can beat teams with winning records. Words don't move the needle. "We're good. We have talent. We're rising." There's a progression in programs: Beat bad teams at home Beat bad teams on the road. Beat good teams at home. Beat good teams on the road. If you rarely win on the…
Massachusetts celebrated WNBA hooper Shey Peddy yesterday at the Massachusetts State House with "Shey Peddy Day." Raised in Boston, Peddy enjoyed a remarkable string of basketball successes. At Melrose High School, she was three time Middlesex League MVP and led her team to four league titles. She scored over 1,600 career points and was a Boston Globe and Boston Herald "Dream Team" selection. She…
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…
In "Inside Man," Stanley Tucci, a criminologist on death row asks what wasn't seen during the crime? Basketball coaches should ask the same question, "what aren't you seeing in your games?" When teams improve in these areas, they increase their chances of success. 1. Ball pressure Many teams pay "lip service" to ball pressure and containment. In 2010 I saw a point guard put so much pressure on the…
"We can't control what happens to us, but we can control our response." Good and bad happens to our team. Players come and leave, injuries happen, player development doesn't occur on the expected arc, conflicts arise. Regardless, we choose how to respond - with understanding, anger, withdrawal, and more. First, dot B (.B) stop and take a breath. The first thought in our head may be neither helpful…
We don't always get what we want; we often get what we deserve. In his MasterClass, David Mamet reveals that he advised his children to do one thing every day for craft and one for business. Quality metrics don't always reveal themselves from 'sales'. Van Gogh sold one painting during his lifetime of the nine hundred or so he painted. The others became collectors items. Craft reveals itself…
“Basketball is not a contact sport. It is a collision sport.” One of the hardest things in life is to "unlearn" what you know, to unsolve what you have already solved wrongly. In college, organic chemisty Professor Von Doering (who reminded me of Captain Ahab) gave us unlimited time with Saturday exams. "To help you correct what you've solved incorrectly." The same principle applies to sport,…
Every player wants to be seen, be heard, and belong. At the NFL Combine, interviewers used to ask prospects, "Would you rather be a dog or a cat?" Dogs are part of the pack and cats are loners. The answer was obvious. Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" postulates "belonging" at Level 3..."the need to feel loved." Refer back to Erik Spoelstra's comment, "There is always a pecking order." At the highest…
Coaching inputs arrive from many sources - experience as the decision-maker, as an assistant, an observer, reader, student. Artificial intelligence (AI) has underrated potential as a teacher. AI conversations expose strengths and limitations ("I hadn't thought about that"). We choose how to hear input: Accept critiques as legitimate Let them "wash over us" (ignore) Get angry We have the freedom to…
