Phil Jackson won 11 championships with one habit most people skip:
15 minutes of stillness every morning.
Before the Bulls. Before the Lakers. Before Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, and Rodman.
He sat still.
Jackson said if he didn't, he felt like he was "constantly chasing today, instead of being able to control it."
Most people think meditation is soft.
He treated it like training.
You train shooting. You train strength. You train conditioning.
Why wouldn't you train your mind?
That was the edge:
Bad call. Bad stretch. Missed shot.
Breathe. Reset. Come back clean.
Most people let the day hit them first, then spend the rest of it reacting.
Phil set the terms before the chaos started.
🚨 COACHES TO STUDY 3.0🚨
OFFENSE
PRINCETON : Pete Carril, Rick Adelman, David Blatt, Erik Spoelstra, David Adelman, Niko Medved, Mike Brown
TRANSITION: Tuomo Iisalo, D'Antoni, Rick Carlisle, Paul Westhead, Tom Crean, Dean Smith, Don Nelson, Chris Oliver
MOTION: Popovich, Kerr, Brad Stevens, Bobby Knight, Quin Snyde, Ben McCollum, Bob Mckillop, Dana Altman, Greg McDermott
GENERAL HALFCOURT: Mark Daigneault, Dusty May, TJ Saint, Dan Hurley, Tex Winter, Rick Carlisle, Chuck Daly, Bill Self, Matt Painter, Brian Goorjian, Ryan Pannone, Josh Schertz, Tuomas Iisalo, Ben McCollum
DEFENSE
PNR COVERAGR: Kelvin Sampson, Thibideau, Ron Adams, Erik Spoelstra, Kevin Young, Scott Drew, Mark Few, Dave Smart, Todd Golden
JUNK D: Scarliolo, Chris Beard, Shaka Smart, Dave Smart
TRANSITION DEFENSE: Tony Bennett, Aaron Fearne, Brad Stevens, Erik Spoelstra, Ime Udoka
SPECIAL SITUATION/BLOB/SLOB: Brad Stevens, Dan Hurley, Matt Painter, Bill Self, Obradovic, Pesic
TECHNICAL WORK: Chris Oliver, Chip Engelland, Ettore Messina, Brad Stevens, Erik Spoelstra, Tom Crean
ANALYTICS: Joe Mazulla, Nate Oats, Dusty May, Todd Golden, Jon Scheyer, Ben Mccolum, Kenny Atkinson
PODCASTS: @BBallImmersion@SlappinGlass@Coaching_U@RisingCoaches@90percent_hoops
Bennett Stirtz’s journey:
• 0⭐️ recruit
• DII Northwest Missouri State
• Followed Ben McCollum to Drake
• Led Drake to its first NCAA Tournament win since 1970
• Followed BMC to Iowa
• Led Iowa to its first Elite Eight since 1987
Now, he’s a first-round pick.
A glimpse of a busy 48 hours for Kelvin Sampson:
Tuesday morning he led team workouts before hopping on a flight to see two of his players get drafted in the first round.
Today, he’ll fly to Florida to be with Emanuel Sharp while Kellen will be in Vegas with Milos Uzan.
You can't take the trophy with you.
But the person you became chasing it?
That's yours forever.
"Banners collect in gyms and rings collect dust, but who you become and who you impact in these 4 years you get to keep forever."
- Cori Close 🔥
Erik Spoelstra on the Five Core Tenants of Miami "Heat Culture":
1️⃣ Toughest
2️⃣ Nastiest
3️⃣ Best Conditioned
4️⃣ Most Professional
5️⃣ Least Liked
💪 Toughest = You do not need ideal circumstances to compete. You can absorb contact, handle adversity, and keep responding when the game stops being comfortable.
😷 Nastiest = You set the standard with your edge. You do not play entitled, passive, or polite. You compete with force, urgency, and a refusal to be easy to play against.
🍃 Best Conditioned = fatigue cannot become your excuse. When everybody else is negotiating with tired, your habits, preparation, and discipline allow you to keep executing.
👔 Most Professional = your standard does not change with your mood. You show up on time, do your job, accept coaching, tell the truth, and carry yourself like the work matters.
👎 Least Liked = when teams see you on the schedule they feel a wave of frustration, a smidge of anxiety, and that feeling you get before jump into a cold pool that feels like fear mixed with regret.
@Giannis_An34 will be indoctrinated into the @MiamiHEAT identity from day 1.
Heat Culture became (in)famous because words showed up in behaviors.
Everybody wants the reputation of toughness.
Coach Spo and the Heat built it through repetition. ☄️
Coach Splitter on Gregg Popovich:
"He was of course a great coach, mentor and still is. A guy that calls me, text me and helps me. I saw how he did when certain things and how he would deal with situations, so I learned from it. The day to day things, how he treats players, he's one of the best if not the best at how he makes everybody feel involved."
Tom Thibodeau didn’t coach the Knicks to a championship.
He dragged them out of two decades of irrelevance, made winning basketball the expectation, built the culture, and laid the foundation for the team that eventually got there.
Not every architect gets to cut the ribbon.
“Nobody ever better shoot the ball unless its Azzi when she is open in the corner.”
“Start understanding when you’re on the floor whom am I on the floor with and who needs yo get open threes and who needs to be driver.”
This is a real coach.
Geno, we miss u everyday.😭
Shoutout Tom Thibodeau.
The Knicks do not get here without him. Mike Brown took us to the promised land, so he’s Joshua. That makes Thibs Moses.
He did the hard work of building up a team out of nothing. Coaching hard in a league where players refuse to be coached.
He turned Julius Randle into an all star. Not only did that make the Knicks worth watching for the first time in god knows how long, it eventually made the KAT trade possible.
Before Jalen Brunson came here, this had to be a team worth coming to. Thibs did that.
We don’t beat Boston last year without the culture and work ethic he instilled.
Yes, Thibs didn’t make adjustments. Yes, he played guys for too many minutes. Although I would say the bench was also weaker last year.
Ultimately, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to dispute that it was the right move to hire Mike Brown. But Thibs had the harder job of bringing this franchise out of the gutter to glimpse the sun, and I’m not sure any other coach could have done that.
And it makes me sad that he doesn’t get to share in the glory, and is kind of being forgotten in this moment, when he deserves such an outsized chunk of the credit.
He better have a job next year.
CC @thibodeau_96709
“Why work if you don’t want to be the best?”
— Kobe Bryant on Jalen Brunson in 2014
Kobe Bryant would be so proud of Jalen Brunson right now. He watched his growth, mentored him, and witnessed the countless hours of hard work behind the scenes. 🫡
Now, Brunson is an NBA champion.🏆