A Coach's Diary

All the Smoke is a weekly podcast series featuring former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. In one of their latest episodes, they interviewed Kenny Smith. Kenny played at the University of North Carolina with Michael Jordan and for the legendary coach Dean Smith. When he was asked to tell a story about Coach Smith, Kenny told a fantastic story that is a MUST listen for EVERY coach, teacher, and anyone who leads or works with people. Coach Smith sent one of his assistant coaches to Africa for a week to learn more about the culture of one of their athletes. They had a young man on their team named Makhtar N'diaye. Makhtar was having a tough time in practice, and assistant coach Bill Guthridge there him out of practice. After practice, Coach Smith goes to Makhtar and asks if everything is alright. Makhtar would respond, but he wouldn't look Coach Smith in his eyes. Coach Smith told Makhtar, "Look at me when I'm talking to you." Makhtar told him in his cult...

Mike Malone is having a lot of success as the head coach of the Utah Jazz. He was Isaiah Thomas's coach in Sacramento, and on the All The Smoke Podcast , Matt Barnes asked Isaiah what it was like playing for Malone (34:35 time mark). Isaiah said that Malone was a player's coach. Isaiah said that everybody was in his ear about trying to be a pass-first point guard, but that wasn't who he was - he was a scoring guard who makes plays. Isaiah said that Malone pulled him aside and told him that he would never be John Stockton. Malone told him to be Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah said he took that confidence that Malone instilled in him and ran with it. Isaiah said that the NBA is about opportunity and situations. Everybody can play, but if you are in the right situation where there is confidence poured in you, 9 times out of 10 you are going to succeed. The coach can be the best defender for most players. He can be first-team all defense. You have to figure out ways to get past it, but i...