In October 2017 Basketball Queensland Coaches Tour, myself and 5 other coaches we were fortunate enough to watch a Philadelphia 76ers practice followed by an 15 minute conversation with head coach Brett Brown. Coach was so generous with his time, sincere and a truly charismatic person.
Context — game next day playing Washington Wizards
15 Minutes Post Practice Questions
What are your thoughts on progressing your career as a coach?
- The best job you have, is the one you have now.
- Know your lane, know your place.
- Go into other practices, dive into film by yourself.
- Do things for nothing.
- The NBA is hard to get into, hard to get out of, if you do your job.
- Coaches who make players better have a weight of gold.
What is a phrase or quote that is important to you?
“I’d rather be trusted than loved.”
What’s your philosophy on coaching?
I am constantly asking, WMI, WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT?
1. Relationships
- Check on the wellbeing of your players.
- Know their family.
- Talk and touch every day, daily interaction.
- Why should they listen to you?
- Nobody understands relationships better than Pop.
2. Development
- We coach fundamentals everyday.
- They have to see they’re improving, or you aren’t doing your job.
- ‘I owe it to them, to teach them NBA basketball.’
- Each player receives a roadmap for the offseason: 1 thing for offence, 1 thing for defence, 1 thing physically for their body.
- I have coached jump stops, more than anything, all year long.
3. Leadership
- The opportunities to study leadership are unlimited.
- I love studying it outside the sport of basketball.
- It’s all about managing people.
- I see the world from a cloud, after studying Belichick I coached my assistants harder than anybody on the team.
- Set my staff up like NFL team: offence, defence, special situations.
How do you get better as a coach?
- Throughout the season I don’t have time, but I compile a book of any video, articles, plays, books, speeches I see and categorise them into the following
1. Offence
2. Defence
3. Philosophical
4. Miscellaneous
- At the end of the season I go through it all. WMI? If it’s not important or I won’t use it with my players I toss it out.
- 1/3 of our NBA season are static dead ball situations, that is on me to get right.
What does an NBA shoot around look like?
- Meet 90 minutes before with my staff
- Organise like an NFL team
- Delegation allows you to become a better leader, what is your zone of genius? What is your most important job?
- Ask my guys about the opposition — offensive guy, defensive, special situations
- 3 parts of shoot around: fundamentals, special situations, scout
- Chip Kelly: have a pop and pace to your practice, teach in film when you get on the floor it is go time.
- If you were blind, what would you hear at practice?
- Warren Buffett: JUST ZOOM IN, get something done. Less is more.
Team Improvement
- Critically assess my team with analytics, how can we win more games?
- An extra basket here or there is the difference between making the playoffs and not
- Viciously dissect what equals a few more wins
- Have a roadmap of success for each player. Turn goals into games, have winners and losers.
- Be yourself: If somebody was watching would it change the way you coach and delegate?
Book Recommendation
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
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