Alonzo Mourning's good deed

I read the following online this morning concerning former NBA star Alonzo Mourning...

Mourning's vehicle had been sitting in traffic on the right lane, when he spotted a disabled person sitting in a motorized wheelchair along the curb. Mourning jumped out of his SUV, stood in the road and stopped traffic by raising his long arms, while the wheelchair-bound pedestrian made it to the median. Then, the seven-time NBA All-Star immediately went to the southbound lanes and raised his arms to command stunned drivers to stop. All traffic movement instantly stopped, and the wheelchair safely made it to the other side.
After making sure the citizen was safe on the other side of the road, Mourning lowered his arms and headed to his SUV to the sound of cheering fans, who recognized the 6-foot-10 temporary crossing guard.

Alonzo has a reputation for being a fierce competitor on the court and a giving humanitarian off. I wonder how I would have reacted in the same scenario.  My guess is I would have been late to whatever my destination might have been and impatiently waited for the light to turn green so I could speed off on my way. 

John Wooden famously said a person cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone with the understanding they could never return the favor. I don't know how Alonzo lived the rest of his day, but helping this person across the street was the perfect act of kindness in that moment.

What will you do for someone today without expecting or earning a favor in the future?

Self-Improvement

What is your growth plan?  Progress is not a static journey.  I love analogies and we recently passed a goal thermometer for a local company showing what % of their goal had been reached highlighted in red and it was clear how much more money they needed to raise in order to reach 100% of their goal.  I give this illustration to tell you progress in any area of your life is not like the goal thermometer.  Progress for us is a fluid needle always moving in one direction or the other.  The thermometer will not decrease if the company collects 0 dollars for any period of time, but your own progress thermometer will decrease if you don't do anything to grow that aspect of your life.

There are 3 areas of life I am currently focusing on (professional, physical, and spiritual).  Everyday I am attempting to do at least one thing to grow professionally, improve my physical health, and grow spiritually.  On days I am unable (too lazy most likely) to insert some form of exercise into my day's schedule I know my physical health is not staying static, but rather decreasing from where I was the previous day. 

What areas of your life are going to grow today? and what areas will be on the decline?

Attitude notes from Maxwell, Wooden, Lincoln and Blanchard

ATTITUDE

Maxwell

• To be a leader you must preserve the attitude of being receptive to new ideas
• Write the name of a friend you admire _______ , write one thing you admire about the friend…..95% of descriptive words will be about attitude
• Attitude is more important than facts, the past, education, money, circumstances, failures, successes, what other people think or say or do, appearance, giftedness, and skills
• Attitude will make or break a company, church, or home
• Attitude if a daily choice – how will you react to the inevitable
• The right attitude will set the right atmosphere, which enables the right responses from others
• Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react
• 100 of America’s largest companies were asked to name single greatest reason for firing an employee (Incompetence – 30%, Inability to work with others – 17%, Dishonesty/ Lying – 12%, Negative outlook – 10%, Lack of motivation – 7%, other reasons – 8%). After incompetence the next five relate to attitude problems
• 15% of success is due to technical training and 85% is due to personality with the primary trait of personality being attitude
• “If you could beat the person responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for weeks.”
• Loneliness is not a positional issue; it is a personality issue
• Think of Moses during discouraging times – he led a million complaining people for forty years and never arrived where he was supposed to go
• Whatever has happened in your life has happened.  Since you cannot undo the past no matter how hard you try, wipe the slate clean and go on to what’s next

Wooden

• One bad apple is more than most barrels can stand
• Emotional control is as important as knowing how to shoot
• If you can’t control your emotions, your emotions will control you
• The peak emotion creates is eventually followed by a valley
• Who passed the ball, who set the screen, who was in position for a rebound if shot was missed, who had floor balance to stop a fast break, it certainly was not the man pounding his chest
• Temperamental and moodiness were not accepted or recruited
• Kareem was just as enthusiastic as Bill, he just didn’t make as much noise
• All prayers are answered, sometimes the answer is just no
• Wife could not tell if it was a good day or a bad day of practice (leave it behind)
• Don’t hold a grudge.  It takes up room in your heart, time in your life, and space in your mind (clouds your judgment).  LET IT GO
• “Forgiveness will set you free” – Mother Teresa

Lincoln

• Can’t afford to have a brooding or depressed leader who has lost their nerve and will not fight anymore

Blanchard

• “No one can make you feel inferior without your permission” (Eleanor Roosevelt)
• We can feel good about ourselves or we can feel lousy about ourselves.  Why would anyone chose the later?  (Norman Vincent Peale)

·         Until you deal with your feelings, you will be stuck with them.

Fred Smith

·         There are 2 kinds of people in any organization: Polluters and Purifiers.  When you walk away from someone do they feel better or worse?

Butler takes advantage of Pitt hedging ball screens

In the round of 32 Butler was facing Pittsburgh and their hard hedging ball screen defense.  Butler sets a ton of ball screens within their offense package and one way they get a post up after setting and using several ball screens at the beginning of the possession is having the screener slip to the rim while his defender is setting up for a hard hedge.

In this diagram you can see 5 going to set a ball screen for 1, but slipping to the rim instead while his defender (X5) is preparing to execute a hard hedge.  1 will pass to 2 on the wing filling up instead of using the screen and 2 looks to feed 5 in the post who should be able to obtain good deep position if his defender is hedging.

The key to this play is timing and Butler's was superb.  5 can't slip too early or his defender won't begin hedging and 2 has to time his fill up so he is open when 1 is ready to deliver the pass. 

How will your team exploit other teams electing to hard hedge ball screens?

March Maddness - Using screens

The NCAA tournament is my favorite sporting event and specifically the opening rounds of 64 and 32 which feature 48 games in 4 days all played under the pressure of win or go home.  As a fan I love that this setting never fails to create drama throughout the opening 4 days and as a coach I love writing down as many ideas, thoughts, sets, and strategies I can obtain from watching the games. 

One thing that stood out in the opening rounds this year was the successful teams attention to detail when it comes to using screens.  The majority of teams still playing this time of year are extremely physical on defense and often so physical (especially on off the ball action) they prevent the offense from utilizing a screen.  Players tough enough to run shoulder to shoulder off screens whether it be an on ball screen or off the ball screen put the defense on their heels and often gives their own team an opportunity to play the game with greater shot selection. 

Texas guard Jacovan Brown helped his team advance against Oakland and helped provide Texas a great chance of beating Arizona in the next round by attacking the hedge defender when utilizing ball screens.  Brown went shoulder to shoulder off ball screens forcing the defense to help by hedging, switching, or allowing Brown to shoot behind the ball screen.  Brown really exposed teams choosing to hedge by attacking the outside hip and shoulder of the hedging defender and even though he was creating the contact the official will almost always call the foul on the hedging defender.  Brown used this strategy to shoot double digit FTs in both games (shooting 100% I might add!).  Arizona finally adjusted their ball screen defense late in the game on Brown electing to not hedge and go under the ball screen.  The adjustment worked well as Brown was looking for contact off the ball screen and not ready to shoot the jump shot.

Ball screens seem to be more popular than ever, but the execution and attention to detail isn't always there.  Many times the ball handler will dribble too wide around the ball screen leaving enough room for his defender to slide over the top of the screen and rendering it ineffective.  Some players are doing a nice job going shoulder to shoulder preventing the on ball defender from guarding over the top without help, but allow the hedge defender to force their dribble out wide giving the screened defender plenty of time to recover.  The key, and I do believe its a mental toughness issue, is for the ball handler to go shoulder to shoulder every time off the ball screen and if the defense is choosing to hedge then attack the outside shoulder and hip (not chest - this will prompt a charging call) with their inside shoulder (not an extended forearm). 

Are your players mentally tough enough to go shoulder to shoulder off screens?