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Tips To Make You A Better Player November 18, 2008

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Tips to make you a better Player
Jerome Green

To be a better player you don’t have to be the most athletic, the quickest or the tallest. You do have to have basketball IQ and what I call basketball V.E.R.V.E (Vision, Energy, Resiliency, Velocity of learning and Encouragement). All the great players like Jordan, Lisa Leslie, Kobe, and Lebron have it. Without V.E.R.V.E you will always have limitations to your game.

Vision

When you are on the court what do you do? Do you see a play ahead, see the next pass or communicate with your teammates? When you are on the bench what do you do? Do you just sit on the bench sort of day dreaming or do you pay attention to the game by watching the flow of the game, looking for weaknesses in the other team and specifically watching to see what the strengths and weaknesses are of the player(s) you might be guarding. Some of things you should be looking for are:

Are the players left handed or right handed? Can they dribble or shoot with their off hand?

What habits do the players on the other team have? Do they get back quickly on defense or walk back?

What do they like to do the most? Attack the basket or shoot the jumper?

Energy

When you are in the game or on the bench do you supply energy to your team? Are you vocal and encouraging? Can your teammates hear you on the floor or from the bench? Does your coach know you are on the team or are you real quite on and off the floor?

Resiliency

What do you do after a bad play or bad game? Do you sulk, go home and blame someone else, including yourself, or do you actually go back to the drawing board and work on your game? I can recall when Magic Johnson had a horrible NBA final against Boston in 1983. He had a ton of turnovers and just a sub-par playoff series. The fans where also a little down on him because they felt he got Paul Westhead fired. What Magic did was go back to Michigan that summer and work on his game. When he came back the next season, he had a better outside shot, and was a stronger all around player. If a player of Magic’s caliber can do back to the drawing board and do his homework what do you need to do?

Velocity

You have to have powerful spirit to play the game of basketball. It’s not a game for the meek. What you lack in foot speed needs to be made up in learning speed and skill development. The more proficient you can become at managing the ball, the more valuable you become to your team, no matter what your size or athletic ability. Do you play defense and get after it? There is always room for players who play hard and smart.

Encouragement

Encouragement may be one of the most overused words in the English language. Many players are always looking for external encouragement, but very few rarely look inside. Courage is a component to the word encouragement. Life itself requires a great deal of courage and focus to achieve anything you want. Without courage, it’s hard to encourage. You have to have the courage to make mistakes, learn from them and start over again. Luvv is another ingredient to en-courage-ment, without luvv it is very difficult to have the courage to face your next obstacle and you will find yourself becoming discouraged.

“Short memories lead to good defense after mistakes”-.

Mark Adams, an ESPN basketball color man, commenting on a Hawaii player who made an offense turnover and then got in the proper deny defense, got the steal and went down and scored.

To play any game, you have to have a short memory and great bounce back abilities.

Mike Leach and Unconventional Wisdom November 15, 2008

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Mike Leach and Unconventional Wisdom

Posted by Brian McCormick on November 15, 2008

Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach is probably my favorite coach in any sport. Besides being unconventional, he’s hilarious. His office is decorated like a pirate ship. That’s awesome.

Michael Lewis’ Moneyball is one of my favorite sports books. I’ve written articles based on it and I think I wrote a graduate school paper based on it.

Reading an old N.Y. Times article written by Lewis about Leach, then, is pure fun.

Leach changes the way you look at football.

Leach remains on the outside; like all innovators in sports, he finds himself in an uncertain social position. He has committed a faux pas: he has suggested by his methods that there is more going on out there on the (unlevel) field of play than his competitors realize, which reflects badly on them. He steals some glory from the guy who is born with advantages and uses them to become a champion.

I said the same thing about the UCLA SpecialOlympics program when I was in college. We did more as volunteer college students than the paid staff in our area, so they tried to stop us because we reflected poorly on them. We forced them to work harder.

People, and coaches included, like the status quo. People defend the current basketball system at length because they profit from it. If the system changes, or if players developed differently succeeded, they would have to change to stay relevant, and change is hard. It’s much easier to latch onto a mediocre system with which you are familiar, even if you think it is flawed, than to change it.

Leach’s agent says:

“He makes them nervous,” O’Hagan says. “They don’t like coaching against him; they’d rather coach against another version of themselves. It’s not that they don’t like him. But privately they haven’t accepted him. You know how you can tell? Because when you’re talking to them Monday morning, and you say, Did you see the play Leach ran on third and 26, they dismiss it immediately. Dismissive is the word. They dismiss him out of hand. And you know why? Because he’s not doing things because that’s the way they’ve always been done. It’s like he’s been given this chessboard, and all the pieces but none of the rules, and he’s trying to figure out where all the chess pieces should go. From scratch!”

I stopped working basketball camps because I had the same reactions. Coaches dismissed my questions or points as soon as I made them because they were different. Before I published my book, people on the yahoo coaches’ board thought I was a lunatic and automatically disagreed with every point that I made.

I question things. I don’t think crossing your feet on defense is wrong and I don’t think defenders should look at a player’s stomach. This is just crazy talk to most coaches. I think static stretching and running miles are useless for basketball, which goes against the old school approach. I don’t think you need height to win. I hate the shell drill. Heck, I hate 90% of the drills that you see at a normal practice. Zig-zag drills are a waste of time – I have a whole set of drills that I call “time wasters” that include such standards as the three-man weave. So, I’m crazy: Crazy like a pirate…

I just do not understand doing things because that’s the way they have always been done. I don’t believe a drill is good because Billy Donovan does it. I don’t think it matters what offense you run. I think the coaches that get on message forums and try to copy a play, drill or system exactly as someone else does it are unimaginative and probably not very good coaches. Just because Vance Walberg has his guard cut one way when this happens does not mean that you can’t tweak it to fit your personnel – the whole offense will not fall apart if you adjust to the players on your team. It’s not an all or nothing proposition.

I think we spend far too much time worrying about the incidentals of coaching – what play should I run? what’s a good press break for a 2-2-1? is a 2-3 better than a 3-2? – rather than the important aspects of coaching – communication skills, motivation, emotional intelligence, motor skill learning.

I don’t understand why so many people fear change. Without change, there is no growth. Without growth, life stagnates, and when it stagnates, it dies.

The First Basket November 12, 2008

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Recently I read a review, in the Los Angeles Times on, “The First Basket” which documents the early stages of organized basketball. While reading this review I had to reflect back my basketball experiences as a black kid growing up in Rockaway New York. I learned very early on about northern-segregation, which was more based on economics and religion, than on the more southern issue of race. Race was a factor, but not as much as it was in the South. The North was more sophisticated. Outside of the Redfern Housing Projects there were conclaves of Jewish and Irish communities.

It was on the basketball court where we all came together, be it at Beach 116th street, Beach 9th street or at school. The game was above the segregation of race, culture, religion and economics. We just all loved to play.

The real binding factor for all of us was the knicks. Lead by head coach Red Holzman, a tiny, but powerful Jewish coach of the best team in the world. The knicks won the championship in 1970 and again in 1973, and while Clyde, Reed and Bradley had a lot to do with it, we all knew the Jewish coach, was most responsible to building a team and taking us to victory. We would watch the games and then all talk about them the next day at school. When the knicks won the championship in 1970, it was like we all did.

The one footnote is that the NBA itself was segregated, and blacks were not allowed to play unit 1950, when Nat “Sweet Walter Clifton” and Earl Lloyd were signed to NBA contracts.

I haven’t seen the “The First Basket,” but look forward to seeing it this weekend. Read the Times review here.

Film showing locations:

LOS ANGELES: THIRD THEATER ADDED

OPENS IN LOS ANGELES ON NOVEMBER 14TH AT LAEMMLE’S MUSIC HALL IN BEVERLY HILLS,
LAEMMLE’S TOWN CENTER IN ENCINO, & LAEMMLE’S FALLBROOK 7 IN WEST HILLS

Director David Vyorst will appear for Q & A at the following LA area screenings:
Saturday, 11/15
Laemmle’s Music Hall – 7:20 PM
Sunday, 11/16
Laemmle’s Town Center – 1:00 PM 
Laemmle’s Fallbrook 7 – 2:45 PM 
Laemmle’s Music Hall 3 – 5:00 PM

OBAMA Loves Basketball November 8, 2008

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Developing The Whole Athlete November 7, 2008

Posted by hoopmasters in 1, High School update.
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Jerome Green

More and more I am speaking to college coaches these days that are more concerned about GPA’s, players Characters than how athletic or gifted a player is. While the top players in the country will still get speculative nod when it comes to choosing their athletic abilities over other factors, others won’t. The other 7 players on that roster better bring more to the table than their basketball game. One of the rising stars in this whole person approach to basketball is Coach Greg Robinson of Oregon State University men’s basketball. I know that he and the university have gotten major press as a result of his speech at the Democratic National Convention and the fact that his sister is now the First Lady-Elect, but if you go to the OSU website at: http://www.osubeavers.com and read his resume, you’ll see how Coach Robinson and his staff stands on their own merit.

More parents are now realizing with tougher NCAA standards, higher test scores and GPA’s required mean choosing a high school for its ability to develop the whole person is more crucial than how many stated Championship teams they have. Finding the balance between athletic and academic excellence has become increasingly important.

IF your son or daughter is being recruited by a university at any level (D1, D2, D3, NAIA) you need to become an educated buyer. Don’t just get caught up in the fact that someone wants to offer you a scholarship, really take a look at what else they offer. Look at the staff, what is their background and how effectively will they be in developing the whole person. Not just the athlete. What else has the coaching staff done with their lives?

The NCAA has a commercial they run on television during all of their events. It s called-going pro is something other than. Players and parents need to pay very close attention to this commercial, because the simple fact is that most college athletes will be going pro is something other than. I sometimes have the opportunity to speak with a major GM of a major sports franchise and one of the things he always mentions first is the perspective draft picks character. Millions of dollars are invested in athletes; just ask the knicks about Stephon Marbury. The person that was cheated was Stephon, a long time ago his prodigy, was placed ahead of his development as a person. Stephon is a good man, he never was held accountable early on in his career. In discussing his current situation with the Knicks, he is quoted as saying:

“Looking back at the last two years, I kind of liked Larry Brown. I kind of liked Larry Brown. I’m like, ‘Man, I wish this guy was here to drill me now.”

Most young players today might resist the direction and correction, but so what. I would rather do what I felt was best that players overall life, than worry about wining a few AAU games. I have always been far more interested in the whole person than the athlete.

Quality teams combine both athletic talent and human talent. If you really look at most of the champions of sport, Bill Russell being one, their characters was impeccable and someone like Bill Russell had to also demonstrate a strong conscience and courage while he was winning championships.

Today’s young athlete needs to learn not just the fundamental skills that go along with being a great or good athlete in their sport. They also need to learn how to become a whole person and how to develop an ability to listen and follow conscience.