Each year about this time, I think back to my CBA days and my scouting days in the NBA.
People in basketball always ask me if there was ever anything I took away from all the professional basketball, which was readily applicable to the day-to-day operation of a high school or a college basketball program.
The answer to that is “yes.”
Like anything else in coaching there is always a benefit or two from hanging around a higher level of play.
First and foremost, the game of basketball, played at a higher level, even, is still basketball.
Even with a few rules differences and a heightened level of talent, the game is still about putting the ball in the basket and stopping the opponent at the other end.
Granted, there is a considerable difference in talent, but, at the end of the day, the team scoring the most points wins.
I point to the learning process of handling older players and dealing with the levels of problems which accompany all that as great training for a young man of 26 or 27.
Taking all of that in stride, that education provided me a great background as I returned to interscholastic coaching.
I became tougher, and consequently better, especially with discipline.
Basketball-wise, I learned a lot of plays, especially in the half-court due to the number of set plays we needed with a 24-second shot clock.
Through the years, I have spoken to several hundred coaches about the need for set plays in a pro set. It’s simple, really. The pro coach needs those plays for his team in a far greater number than the high school coach does.
We certainly turned a few heads in high school and college coaching with our pro looks at the end of quarters, halves and end-games with looks I picked up along the way.
I was able to publish a book or two, giving out information that I had garnered from just being a set-play guy as a direct result of the time I spent under the rudiments of a shot clock.
A very special part of all that was, of course, the time I spent with people like Red Auerbach, George Karl and Jerry Colangelo.
In 1982, Basketball Digest called George and I the “hardest working coaches in the country.” I haven’t seen the Denver coach for a number of years, but I’m proud of the job he has done in basketball.
Even then, Karl had the knack for getting young men to play his way. The players loved him and would do anything for him.
Today, as I sit retired, now a writer, I have many fond memories of the time I had in pro ball.
I enjoyed all the scouting and take great pride in the number of NBA lives I had a hand in touching.
Any regrets, you might ask? A few. Poor health played a key role in my coaching at a higher level.
My goal from an early age was to coach the Boston Celtics. I developed a great relationship with a lot of big-name, high-fiber NBA people.
Today, I try to be the very best I can at what I’m capable of doing.
I have been blessed with a fine family, who keep me focused on the job at hand.
We all should be so lucky to have the career I’ve had.
Never lose sight of what goes on around you, coaches – never.
Keep coaching and appreciate all those kids who worship the ground you walk on.
