Think about it. Who are the most memorable coaches? You pick the sport and level. What names come to mind? And why do they stand out?
I was thinking about that question the other day—soon after Dean Smith’s passing—stimulated by reading Adam Jeffrey’s column on Smith. Adam wrote: “The man who can take an individual superstar and turn him into the ultimate team player. The man who coaches and teaches the game the right way. The man who exemplifies excellence and teaches lifelong lessons.”
Courtesy: freerepublic.com
Smith was a winner, of course, and he did it in consummate style with 2 National Championships, 11 Final Fours, and 879 NCAA victories. But Smith did much more. Here’s how President Obama put it: “(Smith) graduated more than 96 percent of his players and taught his teams to point to the teammate who passed them the ball after a basket. He pushed forward the Civil Rights movement, recruiting the first black scholarship athlete to North Carolina, and helping to integrate a restaurant and a neighborhood in Chapel Hill.”
Smith isn’t alone in the category of great people who coached. At the top of the list is John Wooden, “The Wizard of Westwood,” legendary hardwood coach of the UCLA Bruins. Wooden is arguably the best basketball coach of all time–certainly the most successful as measured in terms of winning national championships. Heck, when I was a kid the only question was whether any team would be able to challenge UCLA for the national crown. Wooden won 10 National Championships—7 in a row—and his UCLA teams also won 88 game in a row. We’ll probably never see anything like it again.
But it wasn’t just what Wooden accomplished, it was how he accomplished it. Wooden, you see, was a student of leadership and organizational effectiveness. He developed a framework—“The Pyramid of Success,” as he called it—and applied it to basketball.
Courtesy: boston.com
He started working on “Pyramid” long before he got to UCLA—in 1934, to be specific, while a high school coach—and it took almost 15 years to develop in final form. What’s special about it? Competitive greatness, Wooden thought, is an end product. What contributes to it? Wooden believed it was things like industriousness, self-control, team spirit, poise, and confidence. He believed in having faith. Being patient. “Success,” Wooden said, “is peace of mind, a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best you’re capable of becoming.”
“The Pyramid” doesn’t include a word about basketball, or athletics, for that matter. That’s why it has been used extensively in business and elsewhere to stimulate leadership for success. Last year USA Today ran a story about Wooden. The title? “Running a small business like basketball.”
Courtesy: amymoritz.com
Of course, there are lots of other great coaches; it just depends what you mean by “great.” Some won a lot of games (e.g., Bob Knight, Pat Summitt); others were incredibly inventive (e.g., Bill Walsh); a few oozed greatness (e.g., Vince Lombardi); some will be forever connected to greatness (e.g., Casey Stengel); and (sadly) there are coaches who stayed around a bit too long (e.g., Woody Hayes).
“Great” applies to coaches of today, too. Take John Calipari. While most coaches struggle to achieve sustained success, Calipari has figured out a way to win year after year—largely with a rotating cast of players—competing regularly for national titles. It’s the most notable accomplishment in college basketball since The Wooden Years of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
People ask constantly: “How’s he doing it?” For answers take a gander at his book, “Players First; Coaching from the Inside Out.” That title tells you all you’ll need to know. It’s not about a coach’s system first: it’s about players first.
Surprisingly, Calipari doesn’t like the NCAA system, but he knows that doesn’t matter: he has to compete in the system that exists. With his players-first philosophy the primary issues is knowing what players want. The best want to play in the NBA. The goal, then, is to develop a program that enables that outcome for as many players as possible. “Success breeds success,” he says. How do you compete against success? One interpretation is that the recent proposal to bar freshmen from participating is a way to counter Calipari’s success.
Courtesy: usatoday.com
While it’s fun to talk about coaching recipes for success—the ones who succeed–there’s the broader reality context: no matter how you define it, “great” is a matter of few and far between. Most coaches aren’t great by any standard. Others may have been great at one time, but aren’t today, not now. And games and leagues are littered—as are all professions—with average types, folks who embody what’s called, “The Peter Principle”—leaders who were successful at lower levels, but who don’t have “the stuff” to handle new challenges. The Bleacher Report has a list of the 10 most disastrous coaching tenures (it’s worth a look) and, ironically, Billy Gillespie (Calipari’s UK predecessor) is on the list.
Courtesy: usatoday30
The next time you watch a game, focus on the coaches. Watch what they do. Listen to what they say. Contrast it to how they were years earlier. Some wear well, but others don’t.
That’s the rub about coaches and coaching: it makes sports fun, but it’s also frustrates fans to no end.
Wish everybody could be a Smith or Wooden….
