Honesty – The Basketball Coaching Roadmap

As we discussed in the introduction to the Basketball Coaching Roadmap, coaching is very similar to teaching or parenting – you must focus on developing and nurturing relationships to increase everyone’s chances for success. The best way to build sustainable relationships with your players (or anyone, for that matter) is to be honest with them.

If you ask me, honesty is one of the most challenging aspects of coaching. For most people it is easier to tell players what they want to hear as opposed to what they need to hear. It’s tempting to sugar coat challenging discussions to avoid conflict. Being dishonest with your players can fracture your relationship with your team and once that happens, your chances of success diminish.

There are three ways to help you develop an honest relationship with your players:

1. Know yourself and your team philosophy. Actually take some time to write down your strengths as a coach and what you want your team philosophy to be (always work hard, focus on positive energy, individual development, etc). To maximize team success your strengths must align with your desired team philosophy. I would recommend doing this more than once per season. Teams evolve throughout the year; don’t let an outdated philosophy hold your team back.
2. Your actions must match your words. If you are communicating with honesty and your actions consistently match your words, it is more likely that your players will trust you. Throughout the year your words will carry more and more weight and your team will function more cohesively.
3. Welcome feedback. Being open to hearing feedback from your players is just as important as being direct and transparent with them. Establishing a culture where players feel comfortable opening up is an important aim in an honest relationship.

Each offseason, we assess our team and develop our team philosophy. This year, we thought the team would be strong enough to beat anyone on any given night but we weren’t sure we could consistently beat the best teams. We determined it would be a rebuilding year and if we (the coaches) did our jobs well, we could really surprise people in March. We knew that we would have three young and promising guards; Kareem Collins, an extremely talented freshman point guard, Ryan Doornick, a second year CIS transfer and Lamar Barr, a returning star and future all-star. We have the potential to have one of the best backcourts in the country for the next few years.

We also have Pat Iavarone, a senior guard who is intelligent, talented, studious and has the potential to be a fantastic coach. He started most of his sophomore year when we were challenging for a National Championship. He played a key role off the bench last year for our team that made the National Final Four. After losing four starters (all in their fifth year) from last year’s team Pat’s natural assumption for this season would be to start and be one of our “go to” players. I expected and understood why Pat should think he would be in that role. As coaches we weren’t sure that was the best direction for this young team and I needed to have a very difficult conversation with Pat in August.

The basic message to Pat in communicating our team philosophy was that we were committing to playing the younger players this year. We were willing to live with the mistakes that are inevitable with less experienced players, to accelerate their growth. We weren’t sure where that left him. That meant there may be nights he plays 25 minutes and there might be nights he plays a lot less without a real good explanation as to why. Can you imagine hearing that if you were Pat? A senior with starting experience and plenty of big-game experience being told there may be games he barely played and for no reason other than to play younger players! To be honest, I had no idea how Pat would react but I wanted to tell him in August to allow him time to process the message and let him make decisions for his basketball future before he came to tryouts with high expectations. I would have understood if he didn’t play. I expected he would go home and be very upset. My final message in the conversation we had was if he chose to continue playing, realizing that his role was clouded at best, he could never be a distraction. It is the toughest, most honest conversation I have had with anyone in my 21 years of coaching.

Pat chose to play this year and has never been a distraction. He has been just the opposite; he has become a mentor for the younger players, a source for them to get information outside of the coaching staff. Pat sets a great example during practices; he works hard and wins most sprints. He is averaging 17 minutes a game and nine points while enjoying his best shooting season. He is second in the entire league in steals. We just enjoyed our best semester in school history going 9-0 in conference play and 14-0 against all CCAA teams. We probably would have lost three of those games if it wasn’t for Pat and his defence, enthusiasm and leadership. He couldn’t have handled the situation with more maturity; as a result he is a key contributor to another National contender.

I tell players they might not always like what I say but I will ALWAYS be honest with them. I believe I owe that to them as a person, a player and a teammate.

Next item on the Basketball Coaching Roadmap is Encouragement: