A Coach's Diary

"I did the ordinary things extra." - Kenny Smith Kenny Smith is best known for his work in the NBA on TNT, but he was also a great basketball player. He was a high school All-American, played for Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina, and won 2 championships with the Houston Rockets. When Kenny was in high school, he said he went from not being recruited at all as a junior with 0 scholarship offers to being an All-American and having scholarship offers from every school in the country as a senior. How did he do it? Work ethic and doing the ordinary things extra. He says, "Champions do daily what everyone else does occasionally. They aren’t extraordinary, they just do the ordinary extra." A mindset shift changed his work ethic, and a change in work ethic changed his career and life in just 6 months. Make the next 6 months your best 6 months by committing to doing just a few things you already do better, more consistently, or extra. Reflection Question: What ...

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...

Bad point guards don't get their teammates involved AND they can't get their numbers. Good point guards can EITHER get their teammates involved or get big numbers. The best point guards can make the people around them better AND get their numbers. Great point guards are born AND made. They are born to play the position and they are made to be point guards. They understand the dynamic of getting their teammates involved because they are asked to do that their whole life. Finishers are told to finish plays. They are taught and told to make sure the team hits a certain number of points. The same can be said for leaders. Bad leaders don't help or inspire others AND they can't do what they are supposed to do. Good leaders can EITHER help and inspire others or do what they need to do consistently. Great leaders can inspire others and do what they need to do consistently at a high level. If you can't see the video above, you can click here:  Point Guard Play and Leadership