A Coach's Diary

“For some coaches, they love getting into the bunker of the season. They crave a darkness of everything and everyone. Yet, Kerr doesn’t see the profession as a way to grind everyone down. He coaches to elevate everyone, and maybe that’s made easy with Curry and Durant and Thompson. Still, Kerr has always been true to his disposition: fiercely competitive, relentlessly self-deprecating and smart with everything he’s done in the game. He’s truly a product of his coaching mentors: Gregg Popovich, Phil Jackson and even Lute Olson. Mostly, Steve Kerr is the son of Malcolm Kerr, the American professor murdered in Beirut in a terrorist act in 1984. Kerr loves the game, but he’s always valued it within context of the people it allows him to reach, the voice it gives him for something bigger than the game.” These two paragraphs come from an article written about the struggles that Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is going through this playoff run.  For years, ‘the grind’ w...

In chapter 2 of his book, 11 Rings, Phil Jackson goes through what he  calls his 11 basic principles of mindful leadership that he has developed over the years.  Below are short notes about rules 1-6. 1 - Lead From The Inside Out      2 - Bench The Ego 3 - Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny I always tried to give each player the freedom to carve out a role for himself within the team structure.  I've seen dozens of player's flame out and disappear not because they couldn't figure out how ot fit into the cookie-cutter model of basketball that pervades the NBA. My approach was always to relate to each player as a whole person, not just as a cog in the basketball machine.  That meant pushing him to discover what distinct qualities he could bring to the game beyond taking shots and making passes. 4 - The Road To Freedom is A Beautiful System It was important for him to find the perfect system that gave his players freedom ...

Below are quotes are taking from the first chapter of Phil Jackson’s book, 11 Rings.  The first chapter is titled ‘Circle of Love’ and it talks a lot of the importance of getting your team to work together and form a real ‘brotherhood.’ He talks about the importance of ‘the ring’ in sports and how the ring symbolizes the quest of the self to find harmony, connection, and wholeness.  He also said that players understood intuitively the deeper meaning of the ring.  The Ring His 2001 - 2002 Championship Laker team took on the motto ‘The Ring.’  He said that it was not just a band of gold, but that it’s the circle that’s made a bond between all the players.  A great love for one another.  A Circle of Love. The Most Important Ingredient It takes a number of critical factors to win an NBA championship, including the right mix of talent, creativity, intelligence, toughness, and, of course, luck. But if a team doesn’t have the most essential ing...