Intensity

What if every opponent thought this:

"I do NOT want to play against

his effort & intensity for 40 minutes!

The above statement was tweeted by Kevin Eastman and 2 players immediately came to mind when I read this.  The first was Kevin Garnett and the second I'm proud to say was a player I currently coach.  One of the things we've always tried to preach as a coaching staff is it doesn't matter how talented you are, you can do 2 things for us 1.) Communicate 2.) Maximum effort on each possession.  These are the only two things we place a value on the in the summer and pre-season with the hope it will carry over when the season arrives and execution becomes a focus. 

Before I read this tweet we had a junior varsity game and there's 4 players on our jv who are also on varsity and want more varsity minutes, but don't seem to want to earn them.  After a poor effort by our jv our entire staff blasted especially the players who would be dressing varsity that night.  The final message was when you play as hard as you possibly can on each possession I won't be able to take you off the varsity floor either, just watch (I won't use the players name) tonight and watch how hard he competes.  Everything he has to give he will leave on the floor tonight. He'll be the first to tell you he's not more talented than even the players sitting on our bench while he plays, but he plays so hard I can't take him off the floor.

At half time this player was hugging the trash can.  I asked if he needed a minute to start the 2nd half, his response no coach I'm good.  I said yea you need a minute and I called for a player off our bench, he responded by pulling his head out of the trash can and saying no really coach I'm good and sprinted onto the floor with his teammates.  One minute into the 2nd half this player looks awful and is visibly struggling so we sub him out.  When he's subbed out he immediately runs not to the bench but back to the nearest trash can sick from playing so hard and a minute later he's walking back to the bench saying I'm good coach I can play as soon as you need me. 

Why can't everyone play as hard as they can on every possession?