On a White Sox baseball telecast not long ago, Ken Harrelson said one of the strengths of Jerry Manuel as a manager is that he is “not afraid to lose a game.”That’s an interesting thought, because so much of managing a baseball team or coaching a basketball or football team starts with eliminating or minimizing the ways you can lose.
That has always been a major tenet in my coaching philosophy: to win, you have to eliminate the reasons why you lose — sloppy ball handling, poor defensive effort, lack of blockout, poor shot selection, a whole variety of things that you probably cannot totally eliminate but you can really cut down. There is going to be a bad shot taken, a missed blockout. Basketball is a game of errors. You try to reduce the number or errors to give your team the best chance to win.
But “not afraid to lose” means to me that you’re willing to do what you think has to be done to win, even if it deviates from the norm — even if it puts you out on the limb for criticism if it deviates from what the consensus thinks has to be done.
I’m a teacher. I felt we weren’t getting the defense and the effort we have to have and if we had to lose a game to teach them what was important, in terms of their recognizing their responsibility and handling their responsibility, then that’s what I was perfectly willing to do.
-Bob Knight
From “Knight: My Story” by Bob Knight & Bob Hammell
