jump to navigation

Confession of a baskeball addict, part 1 December 9, 2008

Posted by hoopmasters in 1, Basketball Men's, General, High School update, learning.
Tags: , , , ,
add a comment

169700671_62403e2ca3

In March of 2000, after a disappointing college JV season and a long, unremitting struggle to restore a harmonious passion back into my life for playing basketball, I decided to quit the game cold turkey.

My decision was formalized in a meeting with the varsity coach who had called me into his office at the close of our season to inform me of my promotion to the varsity team. While I valued his offer and endorsement of my playing ability, my mind had already been made up—I would be moving on from the game of basketball.

No press conference. No retirement celebration. No jersey to be raised to the rafters.(more)

Man-Man December 8, 2008

Posted by hoopmasters in 1, learning.
Tags: , , , , ,
add a comment

man-man

“I don’t wanna play basketball, yea baby, ’cause I’m too small to hoop,”
–Rapper-Imajin

If you’ve ever been told that basketball is for people 6’0” or taller, or you believe you are too small to play basketball, I invite you to go down to Inglewood High School (home of Paul Pierce) in Inglewood, California and watch 5’0”, “Man-Man”, real name Gerald Evans, who is in the 11th grade. I first saw Man-Man last year when he was a sophomore, when his team played Santa Monica High School.

Man-Man caught the attention of several people in the stands and some were even laughing about how small he was. One person commented that he must be the team mascot, manager or coach’s son. But, I have scouted talent for over 30 years, and I knew he was a contributing member of the Inglewood team. This 5’ 0” had a swagger about him. Sure enough, four-minutes into the first quarter, this little bullet shot up off the bench and was at the scorers’ table. Prior to Man-Man coming in the game, Inglewood was playing pretty flat and Santa Monica was having their way with them. Well, in comes Man-Man, and like the movie “Gone in 60 seconds”, all of Santa Monica’s Mojo shifted to Inglewood. Inglewood went on to win the game as a result of Man-Man’s energy and Dashawn Gomez’ outstanding play down the stretch that sent them into overtime. But it was Man-Man that shifted the tide and the game with his infectious energy.

I don’t even know if Man-Man even thinks of himself as a small player. He plays big, plays every possession and never quits. The minute he comes in the game, you can see how much he lifts the spirits of his teammates and the fans. I have never seen him not make an impact. If you are a player on the short side, or the large variety, you need to see Man-Man play. Not only is he quick and fast, but he also knows how to take advantage of everything he’s been given. Imagine being an opposing guard with average handles and then having to deal with this guy who is up in you, giving you no breathing room, and here you are trying to run the offense. It’s a daunting experience! A year after seeing Man-Man have an impact in a big game, I got to see him, once again, bring verve with a resolute spirit and acuity of ability to the floor that very few players have.

Man-Man has a huge heart, some above average athletic ability and an “I won’t quit” attitude. I don’t know if Man-Man will play at the proverbial “next level” that we all talk about, but who cares?

There is so much focus on the “next level”, that I think we often forget about the level the players are at right now. There is a risk as a player, coach or parent of getting too far ahead of the moment.

Play hard, work hard, and bring your heart in each moment and let that determine what the future holds. The biggest trend in basketball is to go for size, and yes, the game is getting bigger and stronger. But if you really have a passion for the game, why not go as far as you can, for as long as you can? Basketball is an activity that can be played for a long time if you take care of your body, stay in shape and don’t have too many injuries. Who knows, the “next level” for you might just be the White House!

Free Play : Coaching from the stands: Offer support not instruction December 8, 2008

Posted by hoopmasters in 1.
Tags: , , , ,
add a comment

Originally published in Los Angeles Sports & Fitness in November/December 2008.

Last weekend, while coaching at a recreation volleyball league, I saw a familiar scene. The teams were scrimmaging at the end of the one-hour clinic. A 7th grader stepped to the service line, and her father said something to her. She served underhand because the game was close, and she wanted to get her serve in the court. Her father told her to serve overhand. She looked at her father and dismissed him. She served again. The next time her serve came around, her father implored her to serve overhand. She did. She scored. She served again and missed. It happened to be game point. She said that she always misses on game point.

This is a very recreational clinic-league. It uses the principles of “Games for Understanding” to teach basic volleyball skills to young, recreational players. The coaches on each court are volunteer parents who receive brief instructions from me, the clinician, before each drill or segment of practice. Everyone enjoys the experience, and it lacks the performance pressure and intensity of a typical youth league. The atmosphere is more like a group of kids at the park for a picnic.

This changes, of course, when the parents on the sideline send different messages than the parent-coaches and the clinician. Even in such a relaxed atmosphere, the player felt pressure when her dad started to tell her what to do, and she hesitated to try a less automated skill (serving overhand) because of the game setting and her father’s presence. According to Zajonc’s Theory of Social Facilitation:

*

Audiences increase arousal
* Arousal inhibits learning new responses
* Arousal facilitates the performance of well-rehearsed responses.

When an audience (parents) is present, players tend to play harder and perform better in skills which they have mastered. However, the audience hinders development, as players tend to do what they can already do rather than trying new skills. Even though her dad encouraged her to serve overhand, she hesitated because the crowd’s presence created a game-like environment.

We learn better in practices than in games because we are more open to trying new skills, while games create pressure to perform. To develop a new skill, we must be willing to make mistake after mistake. If we are unwilling to make mistakes, we will only do what we can already do, which limits improvement.

When a parent instructs from the sideline, most kids react negatively, especially internally. Rather than concentrate on their performance, they internally focus on their parent, trying to please or ignore the parent. Their attention leaves their task, and they have an internal monologue about their parent and how they wish their dad would be quiet or leave them alone.

On my basketball team last year, I had a girl who could not function with her father in the stands. In practice, she excelled. In games, she struggled. She only heard his voice and constantly looked toward him for approval. When he showed his disappointment, she tensed up even further to the point where she missed numerous lay-ups because she was so tight, she lost all fine motor control.

Parents play a large role in a young athlete’s development. However, they do not always play a positive role. In Little League, our star pitcher was Robbie. He was bigger and stronger than the other kids, and his dad certainly had Major League dreams. His dad sat behind home plate and yelled at Robbie after every pitch. He attended every camp with his son and remembered bits and pieces and yelled them at Robbie. He yelled “Release point” all the time. The other teams joked about it.

Robbie was by far the most erratic pitcher in the league. He would throw a one-hitter and we would lose because he would walk 10 batters in a row. The whole league was scared of him because he threw hard and had zero control of his pitches. He literally threw one off the top of the backstop in a game! I don’t know for sure that Robbie would have performed better if his father sat quietly in the stands because his father was omnipresent all the way through Little League.

I played All-Stars with Robbie one year and his dad was the only non-coach parent to attend any of the practices; every other parent dropped off her kid and returned two hours later to pick up her son. Robbie’s dad followed him everywhere he went. If he ever allowed Robbie to relax and just pitch, he may have developed into a good pitcher. Instead, as soon as he hit high school, they put him in right field.

Playing youth sports is all about exploring and discovery. It is, after all, play. Parents and coaches often inhibit the child’s play in an effort to help the child. Rather than instructing the child on every pitch or yelling at his daughter to serve overhand, good sports parents allow the child to control his or her environment. The athlete needs to make decisions and develop the skills, and parents need to support the development, rather than attempting to dictate it.

When parents become too controlling, kids lose interest. Sports like skateboarding are on the rise because they lack adult interference. Kids learn by watching other skaters and trying tricks on their own, and they enjoy the experience. Skaters help fellow skaters; it is a collaborative sport rather than a competitive sport.

When I watched the X-Games this summer, Bob Burnquist said after his turn on the mega ramp that the competition was not about winning, but about pushing the limits of what people think possible or what their bodies can do. That is a true sporting pursuit and the reason that most people play sports and compete.

We like challenges, we like learning and we like pushing ourselves to see what we are capable of doing. Unfortunately, in many mainstream sports, the behavior of coaches and parents creates an environment where players want to do what they can do or they want to play an easy opponent to win.

Kids now grow up in an environment where parents hold their kids back to give them a better chance at sporting success; when I was a child, parents fought to move their kids into older age groups to give their child a better chance at sporting success: my parents lied about my age to enroll me in my first basketball camp two years early so I could compete against 7th graders when I was a 5th grader. Today, I train 11-year-olds who play against 13-year-olds, but it’s in the 11-year-old age bracket, not because they are playing up!

While parents should try to give their kids an opportunity to be successful, oftentimes, that calls for the parent to do nothing. It means supporting the child from the stands during a game rather than barking instructions. It means encouraging the athlete’s self-discovery, regardless of the sport, so it retains its fun and innocence, much like skateboarding, rather than resembling the pressure to succeed of professional sports.

Brandon Jennings’ Italian Education December 8, 2008

Posted by hoopmasters in 1.
Tags: , , , , , , ,
add a comment

Brandon Jennings’ Italian Education

Posted by Brian McCormick on December 6, 2008

In September, I wrote about Brandon Jennings, the Los Angeles-area point guard playing professionally in Italy rather than attending college for a year before entering the NBA Draft. Almost weekly, someone on SoCal Hoops, the gossip message board of record for Southern California basketball, criticizes Jennings and his decision to go to Europe. This week’s criticism reads:

Once again, let it be known that B. Jennings is not the picture poster child…He is only averaging 3-4 points a game in Italy and the NBA scouts have their eyes on other athletes who are right here in college playing great at home. Not a smart move for BJ to think that he could make it to the NBA without a college career first.

The poster wrote some other things, but I’ll focus on basketball. He also provided a link to a Chad Ford article talking about next year’s draft class. Jennings is listed under the “Bad” section:

Jennings isn’t exactly lighting it up in Europe. He’s averaging 4.9 ppg and 3 apg with 28 percent shooting in 17.3 mpg in his first eight games for Lottomatica Roma. It’s too early to be harsh. When you factor in all the difficulties he faces (new environment, new system, intense scrutiny), he has held up fairly well. But he hasn’t helped his stock much by making the move. While plenty of his college counterparts are dominating, we’re still stuck talking about potential with Jennings.

Ford does not criticize Jennings, but says that his performance has not helped his draft stock. Of course, that contradicts an ESPN the Mag article this week written by Chris Broussard:

“Playing in Europe with grown men who are better than him is going to help him mature as a player,” says an NBA GM who is being kept apprised about Jennings by overseas scouts. “And I can tell you this already: He’s a definite lottery pick in ‘09.”

In Broussard’s article, he writes about Jennings’ experience playing in Europe, which is far different than a college freshman’s experience. Is it better? Maybe (I spent the year after I graduated from high school as an exchange student playing basketball in Sweden, so I have a personal bias). Basketball-wise, he will be better prepared for the NBA. Ford says that Jennings is still “potential.” But, what has anyone really learned about any of the freshman in college basketball this year thus far? Ford mentions Stephon Curry and Blake Griffin; but anyone who was unsure about Curry after last season should not be a scout or general manager anyway. Honestly, how did the son of an NBA player with a picture perfect jump shot and reasonable athleticism end up at a mid-major anyway (I always wonder the same about Coby Karl walking-on at Boise State; what are these coaches watching? I saw Karl play when he was in 10th grade and thought he was a DI player, and he wasn’t even 6′5 yet). How many players have really gone head to head with another top NBA prospect?

Jennings plays against professionals every day. His numbers are low because of the European style of play and his coach’s philosophy; the same reason why Josh Childress’ numbers are low in Greece even though he is an established NBA player:

Holding to a philosophy that’s unheard of in America but not uncommon in Europe, Repesa doesn’t believe in a set starting five. He’ll switch starters by the game; he’ll go 10 deep, playing almost everyone at least 15 minutes and hardly anyone over 25. Admittedly fond of Jennings, Repesa wants to bring No.11 along slowly to manage expectations and keep him from burning out over a season that’s more grueling than anything he’s ever faced.

His coach, the former Croatian National team Head Coach who coached in Beijing this summer, says:

“If he’ll be patient, work hard and listen,” Repesa says, “he’ll be a great player. No question.”

This is a coach who helped Toni Kukoc, Mehmet Okur and Carlos Delfino craft their games. This is a coach who does not need to recruit another high school All-American next year. Instead, he has no problem kicking his young star out of practice.

As the team ran through its half-court offense, Jennings made a UCLA cut to the hoop after throwing an entry pass to the wing. He tossed the ball to a teammate and ran halfheartedly down the side of the lane. “That’s not aggressive,” the imposing Repesa, who stands 6′7″, shouted in his thick Croatian accent, raising one arm above his head. “Be aggressive!” Jennings, visibly miffed at being called out, reset the offense with another entry pass. This time he hurled it with a dose of disgust at his teammate’s knees. Before he was halfway through his cut—which was faster but clearly not full-speed—Mt. Repesa erupted. “Get out! Get out! Out of practice!” he screamed, pointing toward the door. Stunned, Jennings left and sat on the steps outside the facility while the team worked out for another 45 minutes.

Would a college coach kick out a player? Maybe. Some probably would not accept a lazy cut and teach his player a lesson. Others wouldn’t because they do not want that type of reputation because they need to recruit another star next year. As jennings said after the experience:

“When you’re The Man in high school, you can do whatever you want,” Jennings says despondently. “This is something new for me, especially playing for a coach who’s real controlling and doesn’t take no stuff.”

While he may not have the stats of some college players, he’s playing against professional players in a far demanding situation. Sure, a player at North Carolina or Duke has some pressure becuse the alumni expect National Championships. But, Roy Williams and Coach K have secure jobs. A coach in Europe has virtually no security. He has to win. Fans demand wins. Club presidents demand wins. Sponsors demand wins. While the Knicks haggle with Stephon Marbury over contracts, European teams cut players with no buyouts. If you aren’t performing, good bye. I felt the pressure in a much less competitive league, and I tried to cut a player after two games. It’s a whole different experience than a college program.

Basketball-wise, colleges have 20 hours for film and practice. A professional team has unlimited time.

Here mornings are spent lifting weights, sprinting on soccer fields or running through the rocky terrain of nearby woods. Afternoons are spent resting on the minibeds in the minirooms of the minihotel. Evenings? Time to run through drill after drill and get yelled at—again.

Jennings is already in a professional environment and will play 60 games against professional competition. His teammate is Allen Ray, the former Villanova star and Boston Celtic. It’s a much different environment than college. It’s not for every 19-year-old kid, but there is a reason why NBA teams like drafting players from Europe: they are already professionals. They understand how to practice, how to take care of their bodies, and more.

Jennings will not be just “potential” in June when the NBA Draft occurs. He will be seasoned. He will have experience in a professional environment.

“Whoever needs a point guard next year, I’ll be ready,” says Jennings, whose contract has small buyout clauses after each season. “This is great preparation, because it’s a big learning experience over here.”

He may not have stats to match Stephon Curry or Blake Griffin, but NBA teams will know that he can handle coaching and the professional environment. His skills will be tested against players playing in the EuroLeague, which is much more competitive than even the best college league.

“If he had gone to college, they would’ve babied him,” says one NBA scout. “This will make him mentally tougher. And after playing for this coach, he’ll know how to play the game.”

Brandon Jennings Highlights December 1, 2008

Posted by hoopmasters in 1.
Tags: , ,
add a comment

Brandon Jennings playing for Roma, Italy