Its not what you Know...

Rodney Gee sent out the following tweet quoting Doc Rivers: "Doc Rivers: It's not what you know, it's what you get your players to buy into!"

This is so true.  I would add a statement from John Maxwell that fits well here "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."  You can be the smartest X and O coach in the world, have all the perfect adjustments, analyzed the other team to nausea and know just what is necessary to win the game...it doesn't matter UNLESS your players know what you know and believe in what you know.  For example if the other team's PG can't shoot a lick behind a ball screen and you decide to go under instead of hard hedging as you've done all year and your players don't believe in the plan, then the plan will not work.  Their pg is going to make his first 3pt behind the ball screen and your players are going to be even more convinced this plan sucks. 

Every team is different, but the goal never changes.  You as a coach must sell your philosophy to your players constantly.  A good starting point is usually the leaders, best players and oldest players.  If they buy in then the rest of the team will typically follow suit.  There are a lot of different ways to win a basketball game, but one strategy that will consistently lose is one the players aren't bought into.

How do you get player buy in?