Tuesday, December 22, 2009

BASKETBALL THOUGHTS FROM DOC RIVERS

Some thoughts on basketball and coaching from Doc Rivers of the Boston Celtics:

1. Never trust happiness.
2. Coaching isn’t about X’s and O’s, it’s about managing diversity and adversity.
3. The better the players are, the more coachable they become.
4. You’re only as good as your best players.
5. Your best player has to be your best listener. He has to lead by listening.
6. Everyone wants to be coached, you just have to find the right way to reach them.
7. You must be honest with your players all the time.
8. You can reach any player if they believe your only intent is winning.
9. If you have a chemistry guy on your basketball team, do not let that guy out of the building.

Work on team building and chemistry everyday:
1. Watch the locker room closely.
2. Move seats around and put guys together/keep them apart.
3. If a player has an event, every player and coach must go.
4. Sometimes you have to force guys to hang out with their teammates.