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One Way College Assistant Coaches Can Help Their Bosses
In any profession in which you work developing value should be your number one goal. There are too many people on this planet that just want to be part of the pack never wanting to better themselves to...
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Increase the Network of Coaches in Which You Develop Relationships
As a summer club/AAU coach you are under more scrutiny than ever before in the business of grassroots basketball. Some say it is unfair and you are misjudged. unfortunately there have been too many...
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Coaching Great Players
Great players in our sport don’t come a long very often. I’m not talking about a player that can be an all star level player, but a player that changes the game and is a franchise player that...
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George Raveling To Be Honored on Saturday by the Basketball Hall of Fame
On Saturday George Raveling will be presented with the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement award by the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. For most who know George know him as the former coach...
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Look In The Mirror
When dealing with players on any level, you will come across some that will be disgruntled for one reason or another. In some the talent could be there and never made it to the level they should have,...
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Getting Better Is Boring
There really isn’t any hidden secret for getting a player better. In today’s world there is a craze about getting the next big thing to stand out to be better quicker. There are more videos, websites,...
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10 Habits To Instill In Young Players
When speaking to coaches at all levels there is a frustration with the lack of skill level of players. Many blame grassroots coaches, mostly AAU/Club Coaches for the lack of skilled players produced....
View ArticleThe Decline of Sharing In Coaching
I remember starting out in coaching about 20 years ago. Wanting to learn form anyone that would talk to me about the game. Growing up the philosophy that I was taught was when you are young shut up and...
View ArticleMotivating Without Losing It
As a coach at any level you want to be able to get your message and point across to all of the players that you coach. You spend countless hours preparing for your team’s practices and games. We all...
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What Made Kobe… Kobe
This season will be the last for one of the best shooting guards to ever play our game. There has been so much written about his departure from the NBA. Every player is viewed differently from the eyes...
View Article2012 NBA Finals: Game 4 Recap
The Miami Heat trying to silence their critics are one step closer to winning the franchise’s second NBA Championship with a 104-98 victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder Tuesday night in Miami....
View Article2012 NBA Finals: Game 5 Preview
There is no secret the Oklahoma City Thunder have their backs against the wall down 3-1 to the Miami Heat. They have competed every step of the way, but find it very difficult to stop LeBron James,...
View Article2012 NBA Draft Team Situations
Tomorrow the 2012 NBA Draft will take place. With it 60 young men from around the world will have a chance to do big things in the game of basketball and change their lives forever. But, like anything...
View ArticleHistory of Second Round Sleepers Since 1990
Top Second Round Picks One thing that you must understand about the draft is there will be mistakes made. I think the philosophy is to get serviceable players with all of your picks and if you can get...
View Article2012 NBA Draft Team Report Card
Milwaukee Bucks I think the Bucks had a great draft. Before the draft they acquired Samuel Delembert from the Rockets and then with their first round pick selected John Henson. Henson slipped a liitle...
View ArticleWhat Young Players Can Take Out of Watching the NBA Draft
Young players can take a lot out of the NBA Draft. Not only is it an exciting time for players to start their careers, but also like many players before them it is time to start over. It doesn’t matter...
View ArticleWhat Young Coaches and Professional Basketball Interns Should Be Doing This...
Another July is upon us. For college coaches it’s time to hit the road and chase the next big recruit. For NBA coaches it is time to gather yourself after the season and draft process and head out to...
View ArticleThe New American Dream: To Be a Sixth Man and Represent Your Country In The...
Every athlete in every sport has their own perfect sports dream. The young first baseman growing up in Brooklyn wants to hit the winning homerun in the World Series for the Yankees. The 9th grade...
View ArticleFinal Cuts of USA Basketball: A Great Lesson To Elite Players About Adversity
I’ve been dealing with players in coaching for about 18 years. It’s been such a learning experience of what makes them tick. As a coach the first trait that you need to be successful is the ability to...
View ArticleJuly Survival Guide for the Average Player
For thousands of players this month is a very important one. Hundreds of tournaments, camps, and showcases are going on in gyms across the country. This is a very important time for players of all...
View ArticleSummer Basketball Observations
I had the chance to attend an a non scholastic summer event in Chicago to meet up with a couple of basketball friends last week. The tournament had some of Chicago’s top club teams as well as a slew of...
View ArticleWays to Clean up Summer Basketball
In my last post I shared with you some of my observations of non scholastic basketball. Nothing is perfect as everything will have some issues in it. I got my start in club basketball in one of the...
View ArticleAre You An Energy Giver or Energy Taker?
When growing up you are oblivious to the real world. Things like Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, and magic are all tings that you believe in. At some point reality sets in and you find out for the most...
View Article12 Elite Players Coming Together to Form 1 Team, USA Basketball 2012
There has been countless stories about the 2012 USA Mens Basketball Team. Most want to compare them to the 1992 team and try to make cases for which team was better. For the most part I wouldn’t waste...
View ArticleHow Dwight Howard Impacts the Lakers
On August 10th the Los Angeles Lakers pulled off a four team blockbuster trade to acquire Dwight Howard. The Dwight Howard trade talk has been going on for over a year dominating the NBA rumor mill....
View ArticleCoaches and Trainers Why The Disconnect?
Our game as we know it has changed. Summer-club basketball rules grassroots basketball, pick up games at the parks are just about dead, and it seems like every player on the planet has a personal...
View ArticlePlayer Development Coaches Need To Evolve
I’ve been a player development coach for over 17 years. In that time basketball skill trainers have increased in demand and popularity in grassroots basketball. One of my best friends Dave Hopla was...
View Article#Developing: Point Guards
Point guards are one of the toughest positions to develop as most of the decisions that one has to make are reads. Many of the reads a point guard will make are natural reads. You can drill a point...
View Article#Developing: Shooting Guards
Today’s shooting guard comes in many shapes and sizes. In the past shooting guards were bigger players that were more spot up shooters than ball handlers. Shooting guards in today’s game can be the...
View ArticleDid Your Workouts Make You Better or Just Tired?
The year was 1997, my mentor Leo Papile just got hired by the Boston Celtics as their head scout. I was excited for the fact that some one in my circle got hired at the NBA level. It was a different...
View Article#Developing: Small Forwards
The Small Forward is very similar to a shooting guard as far as the skills that need to be developed. Usually the small forward is bigger than the shooting guard, which will open up more opportunities...
View Article#Developing: Post Players
I want to share some ideas on how to develop post players. When working with big men it is important not to get caught up in the actual size of your post players. Like every other position they come in...
View ArticleScouting Games
Today I want to share with you some of the things that I do when I scout games. Since this is before the college season I try to watch as many NBA Pre Season games as possible to evaluate team...
View ArticleThoughts on Recruiting/Evaluating Players
Many of my college coaching clients and other coaches from across the country ask me questions on evaluating talent in basketball. They often ask how can they be the best talent evaluator and recruiter...
View ArticleMidwest Invitational Workout Recap
I’m not one to shy away from mentioning the issues that is going on in our game especially at the grassroots level. So many holes to plug in and many don’t know where to start. One place that has taken...
View ArticleJames Harden Trade Takes League by Storm
The Basketball world was taken by storm early Sunday morning as the Oklahoma City Thunder traded one of their young stars in Jams Harden to the Houston Rockets. Harden, who was one of their most...
View ArticleHow the Mike D’Antoni Hiring Impacts The Los Angeles Lakers
In professional sports most careers eventually ends badly. It isn’t the movies where you go off into the sunset a winner. Very few get to enjoy winning consistently in the beginning, middle, and end of...
View ArticleMemphis Grizzlies: The Best Team That No One Has Heard About
Every year in the NBA 30 teams contend for a championship. Realistically about six franchises at the most have a legitimate chance of competing for an NBA championship. It is so difficult to build a...
View ArticleTop 10 Sleepers in College Basketball
With college basketball in full swing as conference play is about to start up in the next couple of weeks I wanted to share with you five of the Nation’s undervalued players. The season is a long one...
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Top 15 Shooters in the NBA
Today’s article is about rating shooters in both the college and NBA levels. People judge shooting in different ways. Some judge if a player can shoot by his three point percentage and/or makes and...
View ArticleWhat To Look For When On The Bench
During the holidays I was having a conversation with Coach Raveling and we were going back and forth about story ideas. He mentioned to me that a good idea for a story would be what players should be...
View ArticleRadioactive Players
When evaluating players there are so many things that you want to look at. Size, skill level, and athleticism are all facets that come into consideration. One major thing that scouts look at is...
View ArticleWhy Are You in the Business That You Are In?
We all enter our careers for different reasons. There really isn’t one right answer or reason why we choose the career paths that we do. Everyone is their own person and need to decide for themselves...
View ArticleBig Issues to Deal With in Los Angeles
Every year it is something or someone else filling up rumors in the NBA. A few years back it was LeBron, then Carmelo, and for the past two years it was Dwight Howard and the Lakers. You can make a...
View ArticleBridging The Gap Between Young and Old Coaches
One subject that I wanted to talk about today is bridging the gab between young and old coaches. Not only their approach with working together, but an overall attitude in working in the industry. Many...
View ArticleEntitlement and Players
For the past few months I’ve been thinking about writing on the subject of entitlement as well as immature actions and how they impact a player’s life. Like most in the sport I’ve read some of the...
View ArticleYou May Be Good Today, but Will You Stay Relevant?
Lets be honest we live in a hey look at my society. The “In” thing to do is to tell everyone what you are doing on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. Everyone wants their tweets to be retweeted, their...
View ArticleQuit Worrying About What Everyone Else is Doing and Focus on Being Great
There is a certain trait that defines a visionary and that is they are just different. I’ve had chances to meet many very successful people in all walks of business and you can tell that they are just...
View ArticleWhat Makes A Great Player
Back in 1997 a close friend and mentor Frank Catapano once told me something that stuck with me for the rest of my life. He told me that people today overuse the word great. I asked him what he meant...
View ArticleHigh School Player Rankings and Reality
Our basketball culture in the grassroots level is descending more and more into an individualistic society. Today more than ever players are drifting further away from the “we” way of life to the “I”...
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