5th Grade Book Talks by Mr. Silk's Class

Day 50: Be Assertive

Something that all coaches can’t stand… turnovers. Turning the ball over in basketball is a cardinal sin.  After all, winning the turnover battle is usually the key to victory

But is there such a thing as a good turnover? I wouldn’t go that far… but all turnovers are not equal.  There is difference between trying to pivot through a trap to pass to an open teammate and getting called for traveling and making a casual perimeter pass that gets stolen.  There is a difference between attacking the rim and being called for an offensive foul and tossing an ill advised behind the back pass out of bounds during a simple 2-on-1 fast break.

What’s the difference? One was an assertive play and the other wasn’t.   You have to learn to live with assertive turnovers.

If you want to be a successful basketball player; you need to be assertive.  You need to take calculated risks on the court.  You will never maximize your potential by always playing it safe.  You need to leave your comfort zone; in workouts, in practice, and in games.  However, when you assert yourself, you must be fully prepared to reap the rewards or suffer the consequences.  That’s accountability.

What do Steve Nash, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Durant, and Carmelo Anthony all have in common? 

1)    They are all NBA All-Stars.

2)    They are the NBA’s most talented offensive players.

3)    They were all ranked in the top 15 in turnovers committed last season! 

Part of their offensive genius is taking risks and being aggressive with the ball. Turnovers happen as a result.  You have to take the bad with the good. Even John Stockton, the NBA’s all-time leader in assists, is 2^nd all-time in turnovers committed. It goes with the territory!  Anyone who watched Stockton play can agree that his turnovers were assertive in nature.

This is not an invitation to be careless or reckless with the ball.  I am not condoning turnovers. You must value the ball… every possession is important. But you have to take chances and be assertive to be successful. You have to take risks. “With great risk come great rewards.”

Assertive players are aggressive and decisive.  They don’t hesitate. They survey the situation and go with the best option. They have confidence in whatever decision they make.  And if they make a mistake (or turnover), they learn from it and don’t repeat it. Fighting to establish post position on the block and getting called for 3 seconds is OK.  Getting called for it a second or third time is not!

When an assertive player makes a mistake offensively, they bust their butt to “make it up on defense.”  Assertive players don’t wallow in mistakes.  If they turn the ball over… they immediately move to the next play. They don’t compound their mistake by standing around and pouting.

And you can be an invaluable offensive player even if you don’t have a sick handle or a killer jump shot.  An assertive offensive player sets solid screens, runs the floor on every position, makes hard basket cuts, and crashes the offensive glass every time a shot is taken (assertive players think, “shot is taken, shot is missed.”).  Ask any defender… assertive offensive players are the worst to guard!

Assertive players don’t play with fear.  They aren’t scared to make a play because they fear turning it over.  Assertive players take risks, play hard, and in the end… are successful.

To be a great player, you need to have strong hands.  Grip strength plays a key role in being strong (assertive) with the ball. Here is a video of some unconventional, yet highly effective grip strength exercises: http://TinyUrl.com/BasketballGripTraining 

Day 49: Wanted: Glue Guy

Who is the glue on your team?

Who holds your team together? Who keeps the team focused when times are tough? Who does all of the little things to make your team successful--takes charges, dives for loose balls, hits crucial free throws, is a pest on defense, and sets solid screens? Who doesn’t worry about how many points he scores or how much he plays but rather if the team wins and if he did everything within his role to contribute?

Every team needs a player like this, a player who will make all of the sacrifices necessary to be the glue that holds the team together. Glue players are paramount during the playoffs.

I read an interesting article in the New York Times that parallels this thought. The article was called "The No Stats All Star" and it focused on Shane Battier of the Houston Rockets. While they didn’t use the same terminology per say, it is obvious that Shane Battier is the glue of that team.

Despite the fact that he doesn’t put up huge stats (actually his box score stats are mediocre at best) he is an invaluable member of that team and plays a major role in their success. Bottom line; Shane is a proven winner. He has won at every level. Although he was a decorated high school and college player, he never put up big numbers; his points and rebounding averages were nothing to write home about.

Yet, Battier won three state titles in high school, tied the record for most wins in college (131) as well as won a college national championship while at Duke. Although he is yet to win an NBA title, the Grizzlies improved from 23-59 his rookie year to 50-32 in his third season. The year before he arrived in Houston the Rockets were 34-48 and his third year there went 55-27; including an impressive stretch of 22 wins in row. Coincidence? No way.

So how does he do it? He isn’t flashy, he is rarely on the SportsCenter highlights, and the only big number in the stat column is minutes played. So how does he have such a strong impact? How does he win so much?

It’s because he is a glue guy. Shane is the epitome of a team player. He is an impressive teammate in every sense of the word and he takes pride in doing the little things to help his team win. He is the guy every coach wants to have on his team and every player wants to play with. And trust me; there is tremendous value in being a glue guy. Shane makes $6 million a year.

Remember, it is not always the five best players who play; it is the five players who play the best together. So you may not be the most talented guy on your team, but if you can prove you are the glue, day in and day out, you will play. And you will play even more during playoffs.

If you want your team to make a serious run at a conference or league or state championship; I suggest you either say a sincere thank you to your team’s glue guy; or you become one yourself.

If you want your team to make a serious run at a conference or league or state championship; I suggest you either say a sincere thank you to your team’s glue guy; or you become one yourself.

Day 48: What the Greats Do

What The Greats Do

By Alan Stein

One of the most remarkable people that basketball has afforded me to meet is shooting coach Dave Hopla. Coach Hopla has worked in the NBA for several years (Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards).  

In addition to working directly for NBA teams, Coach Hopla has been hired privately by the game’s best players. We asked him to share two of his most memorable stories:

A Young Kobe Bryant

Coach Hopla had the opportunity to work with Kobe Bryant back in 1996, before he was drafted by the Lakers, and then continued to work with him for the first 4 years of Kobe’s NBA career.

Here is a quick story about the first time they met:

Kobe called late one evening to set up a workout for the following day. The only time Coach Hopla had available was 5:30am because he was heading out of town around lunch time. Kobe said, “Sounds good, let’s do it.” 

Coach Hopla arrived at the gym at 5:15am and saw that Kobe was already there… preparing for the workout to start at 5:30am.  Kobe had arrived at 4:45am.  He was in a full sweat before the workout officially started.

“Kobe has a sense of urgency with everything he does. Every rep, every shot, every drill is important to him. He takes advantage of every opportunity to get better. Kobe is never satisfied with his game and his always looking to improve. That hunger is what makes him great.”

Brandon Jennings is the Future

Coach Hopla was hired to work with the Milwaukee Buck’s Brandon Jennings this past August. He was scheduled to fly in to Milwaukee one afternoon to work Brandon out that evening and then again the following morning.  Coach Hopla’s flight was severely delayed.  He called Brandon to apologize and let him know he wouldn’t be getting in until 11pm and wanted to see what time he wanted to work out the next morning.  Brandon said, “Morning? I still want to work outtonight.  Let’s meet at the gym at midnight.”

Coach Hopla worked Brandon out from midnight to 2:30am… and they went hard!  They went again at 7:00am the next morning!

Coach Hopla was extremely impressed with Brandon’s work ethic and determination to get better. He said Brandon has a chip on his shoulder and wants to prove to the world he is one of the best point guards in the NBA.  But he isn’t looking for a hand-out; he wants to earn that distinction.

It wouldn’t be fair to highlight those two stories without highlighting Coach Hopla’s story as well. He is considered by many to be the top shooter in the world. He regularly keeps track of all his shots during practice and when he is speaking at camps and clinics.

His stats are mind boggling:

• In 2005 he made 98.20% of his shots (35,332 out of 35,979 shots).
• In the summer of 2007, he spoke at 31 camps and shot an unbelievable 99.19% (11,093 out of 11,183 shots), including 260 for 281 from the 3-point line (92.52%).
• During 3 camps, he was perfect from the field during his lecture:
• June 25, 2007 at the University of Maryland he was 263 for 263.
• July 28, 2007 at the CT Starters camp he was 339 for 339.
• August 2, 2007 at UCLA he was 272 for 272
• 
  

Day 47: Dominating the Glass

“The more you go after – the more you get.”

The best rebounders are the ones that go after the most. While this sounds easy, it’s really all about habits — getting your rebounders’ mindset to the point that they understand that rebounding is an “every possession” mentality. It requires effort, energy, persistence, and the creativity to make sure you have different ways to get inside positioning.

Simply put: rebounding can be greatly enhanced just by making the extra effort to go after more of them...........................................

Here are some of the NBA's best rebounders (You can learn a thing or two about how to dominate the paint and the importance rebounding has on winning from them.

5.  Bob Petitt

Bob Petitt, one of the best player in Hawks History and the best rebounder too. He was amazing player and a great winner. His rebounds helped his Atlanta Hawks in the run to the Championship when they defeated Bill Russell's Boston Celtics in the Conference Finals.

Bob Petitt's career high was was when he grabbed 20.3 rebounds per game and that was in 1960-61.


4. Nate Thurmond

Nate Thurmond was an amazing rebounder and had total control under the rim and dominated in the NBA with his rebounding. He averaged 22 and 21.3 rebounds per game in his best rebounding seasons. He never lead the league in rebounds,that is a fact.  He couldn't because of the domination of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell of the boards at the time. 

3. Wes Unseld

At only 6-6, Unseld averaged 14 rebounds per game for his career . He and Wilt Chamberlain are the only players in the NBA History that had an Rookie of the Year Award and MVP in the same season.  This hard nosed player is a great player for any post to model their game after.  His famous for his laser-like outlet passes that are now present in Kevin Love's game.

2. Dennis Rodman


Rodman's rebounding was essential to his team's success. He is a seven time NBA rebounding champion (1992–1998). He had stats like Russell,Wilt ,Petit etc. and he played in the 80s and 90s not in 50s or 60s where there was a run and gun tempo and it was a little bit easier to grab a rebound.


Dennis Rodman's best rebounding season was his first rebounding title when he had 18.7 rebounds per game. His dominance of the glass made him a key part of 5 NBA championship teams.

Rodman was outstanding rebounder because of his skills and quickness to grab the rebound before the opponent and he knew were and when the ball was going to fall in his arms.

1. (tie) Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain
Russell and Chamberlain are the only two players who have amassed 20,000 career rebounds while averaging over 20 rebounds per game for their career.

Bill Russell one of the best winners in the history. He was an unbelievable rebounder too. Russell led the Celtics to 11 championship rings while collecting 22.5 rebounds per game for his career.

He has an amazing instinct of reading where the basketball was going to rebound to. He was one of the guys who could challenge Wilt Chamberlain, it happened that he out-rebounded him in some games especially in the playoffs where Wilt never won a series against Russell.

Wilt Chamberlain holds the record for most rebounds in a single game, 55.  His career average of 22.9 rebounds was often overshadowed by unstoppable offensive game.

He was simply the most dominate under the rim and the most dominate rebounder in the NBA History.He led the league in rebounds 11 times during his career.

His best rebounding season was when he averaged 27.2 rebounds per game. Even if you boxed him out, he could still get over you or around you to get the rebound.