The Sixth Man

“You guys love the game. I know you want to have fun, so go do it. I know you are a leader on this team, Steph’s a leader. All I need to do is put you guys in the right position. Find our weaknesses, catch them.

find the flow.” And for some reason, I knew exactly what it meant. It meant get that ball moving, get it popping.

I was to find it for our team, to uncover it and deliver it. And almost always it could be found through the movement of the ball.

Sometimes I’d be open to shoot, but I would know that we’d had too many one-pass-and-shoot possessions in a row and that it was time to get the ball popping. So I would pass up the shot.

enjoy the moment, don’t beat yourself up too much about mistakes.

We can’t win every single game.

Next we practice doing a few dribbles and then getting to a spot. It’s precision. Rock a little, dribble behind the back, two steps either left or right, step back, and shoot. Repetition. Precision. Next we do the same thing but with a fake crossover instead of a real one. Little shimmy, two steps right. Shoot. Next behind the back from just inside the three-point line. Next pure catch-and-shoots.

People are genuinely angry. We’re taught to brush it off, focus on what we can control.