Basketball should be creative and fluid

Basketball at its highest level is a game that inspires creativity. That's what you should be working on, inspiring your players to be creative, to use their imaginations to play one step ahead of their competition. I think this is one of those life lessons that basketball can specifically address. To grab life and use it. To take the rules of the game - or the rules of life - and see what you can do within those rules. To play - and live - larger than you ever dreamed possible. To embrace failing, to love to fail, because that means you are out there doing things.

I was at a game the other night and this really struck home for me because of what I saw. One team, we will call them Stillcher high school (those of you in my home town can figure this out - it's an anagram), was simply superior than the other team. Superior at every position, maybe the post was a push, but certainly better at every other position. And they had one kid - #11, you know who you are - that could have busted for 30.

Stillcher won, but the game was a squeaker. Here's why, I think. Stillcher was determined to run their flex offense until they got the shot they wanted, which was usually that little elbow shot, but sometimes they got a layup out of it. Now that looks really good to folks in the stands. They're saying things like, "Wow! Look how well coached they are." Or, "They can really run their offense great." But the question is: does that offense really utilize the talent they have? I don't think so. To me this is a coach who wants the team to reflect what HE knows, not what the players know. There's huge difference. We will address when we talk about NCAA and NBA basketball later.

If you are determined to run the flex for your youth basketball team - and I strongly, emphatically advise against it with every molecule in my body screaming no! no! no! - please make some adjustments to it. More on that tomorrow. I'll finish with this note: let your kids play the game. Don't make them play your game.