Basketball is Psychology LIII
“Very few guys come into the NBA with the idea of doing all the thankless tasks necessary for a team to win. They are usually focused on scoring points and playing enough minutes to pad their stats.”
- Michael Jordan
Introduction
Let’s say your team has the ball for 50% of the game on average.
Now let’s say coach plays 10 players in the rotation.
It’s unlikely, bet let’s imagine each player is in the game and has the ball for the same amount of time.
50% divided by 10 players = 5%
This means each player only has the ball in their hands for 5% of the game.
95% of the game, you don’t even have the ball in your hands.
What are you doing in that 95% of the game? Most players just can’t wait until they get the ball back. All they think about throughout the game is getting the ball, scoring points, and padding stats. But great players care more about the scoreboard than stats.
If you want to win, you have to be a great player and a hard worker especially when you don’t have the ball in your hands.
(Billy Donovan first explained this concept in a What Drives Winning interview)
Now, I want you to think of what ESPN highlights look like. They show incredible shots, brilliant passes, buzzer beaters, and dunks.
It’s very rare for ESPN to show highlights like saving the ball before it goes out of bounds, setting a great screen, or playing solid defense without fouling, but doing those things is what it takes to win.
Do the thankless work.
When you think of someone who is a winner, you probably think of someone who scores lots of points, but that’s not true. Some people average 30 points a game and never win. Being a winner is not as much about scoring as it is about being willing to do thankless, unseen work. Anson Dorrance said it best, "The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when nobody else is watching.”
A lot of the things that winning requires won’t show up on the stat sheet, won’t get you any awards, and won’t make it to ESPN’s Top 10 Plays. If you want to win, you have to be willing to do the unglamourous, thankless, hard work it takes to win.
Jobs you don’t get thanked for:
Showing up early to get extra shots up
Setting a great screen
Setting up your cuts
Helping your teammate up
Jumping to the ball
Taking a charge
Defending without fouling
Listening to your coach
Knowing the plays
Diving for loose balls
Holding a teammate accountable
Cheering for your teammates while you’re on the bench
Passing up your shot for a better one
Boxing out
Having great body language
Always going hard
Running your lane in transition
Deflections
Talking on defense
It’s rare for a player to do all of these things. Most players just want to score a lot of points. You won’t make ESPN’s Top 10 because of these things, but you’ll win. Be rare. Do the thankless work and be a winner.
Written by Julie Fournier
Founder & CEO of Basketball is Psychology
1/17/2021