Sometimes I think that we basketball coaches tend to exaggerate technical and tactical matters a little too much.
We all know that there are many parameters that determine the outcome of a basketball game, and that technical details alone don’t mean much.
However, if we still come across big surprises even after considering all parameters, that means we haven’t fully grasped the importance of some things.
IF A TEAM THAT EVERYONE PREDICTED WOULD BE RELEGATED CAN END UP WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP…
I remember two events in the past that really surprised me.
One of them was a team that everyone—supporters and non-supporters alike—had written off as certain to be relegated, but they ended up as champions at the end of the season. Following this fairy tale so closely forced me to reconsider many of the things I believed to be true about basketball.
The other was something that happened to me personally, which I’ll try to share with you below.
MORALE, MORALE, MORALE!
A long time ago, I read a line in a war novel:
“Generals, once it’s too late, find logical explanations for the uncontrollable movements of their troops. But in reality, victory or defeat is determined by the morale of the army—that is, the people.”
If we think of the “army” as the team, and the “people” as the management and the fans, then the key word here is morale—something we all know well but, for some reason, don’t value enough.
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IS IT REALLY THAT SIMPLE?
In the past, it was common for coaches to work with two different teams at the same time—like a school team and a club team, or a youth team and a senior team.
Back then, I was coaching a youth national team at the end of the season, working as an assistant coach in the first division, and also coaching another team in a different league.
The manager of that team was a former well-known player. He managed to bring in unexpectedly good-quality players at low cost. Despite being a very good player in his own time, he had no interest in technical matters. He never gave tactical opinions and only focused on administrative duties.
Although we were quite successful that year, the team disbanded due to financial reasons.
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WHEN THE PRESIDENT BECOMES A PLAYER, THE MANAGER BECOMES THE COACH…
Before the new season started, that manager asked to meet me. He told me he had found a first-division club, but since the club’s budget was limited, he would take on both the roles of coach and manager. He asked me to share the technical details of what we had applied the year before.
So I told him everything—our offensive and defensive systems from the previous season.
Honestly, I thought it would never work. Back then, the idea of someone with so little tactical knowledge coaching a first-division team seemed impossible.
But when the league began, his team surprisingly started getting good results. If I remember correctly, they managed to stay in the league for at least two or three seasons.
Technically, their offense only had two or three set plays, and their defense wasn’t anything special either. Their timeouts were filled not with technical details but with encouragement—“Come on, play now!” and “Well done!”
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A STORY OF TACTICS AND TECHNIQUES…
As a coach who believed that tactics and strategy were everything in basketball, I was genuinely shocked.
I couldn’t explain it with player selection luck, team chemistry, or schedule advantages.
When I brought up the topic to a veteran mentor of mine, his answer completely changed the way I saw coaching:
“He thinks in terms of players. You think in terms of teams…”
What he meant was this: while I prioritized systems and strategies for the team as a whole, he didn’t care whether the systems were simple or not. He focused on carefully selecting the players who would execute those strategies. He believed that within those simple frameworks, the players’ creativity would allow them to find solutions on their own.
More importantly, he managed to guide those players through an entire season without suffocating them.
At that time, having the right players, creating good team chemistry, and applying simple, classic systems could be enough to succeed.
When things weren’t going well, instead of questioning the systems, the real effort needed to go into helping the players perform better.
One-on-one meetings, special gatherings, motivational talks—these were often enough to put things back on track. Without adding new tactical wrinkles, you could get the old systems working again.
In my opinion, if you want to achieve big results with little money, make the impossible possible, and live through Cinderella stories, the key is not to win the players’ minds first, but their hearts.
And then, sustain it without overcomplicating things with too many tactical and technical details.
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SUSTAINABILITY…
We’ve all seen teams that start the season with impossible victories but gradually lose strength midway through.
The hardest part is lifting that downward curve and finishing the story with a happy ending.
Bad results make it feel as though everything up to that point was an illusion. Reality kicks in, excuses pile up:
“The team is tired.”
“The opponents figured out our tactics.”
“The other teams strengthened with transfers while we couldn’t.”
“Some players aren’t performing like before.”
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TRYING TO COMPETE AGAINST TEN-TIMES-BIGGER BUDGETS IS A GOOD EXCUSE.
At first glance, these excuses seem irrefutable. But in truth, they only stem from the emotions brought on by losses.
If you wanted, you could have listed the same excuses at the very start of the season. Just pointing out that the other teams’ budgets were ten times bigger would’ve been enough to justify not even joining the league.
So how do you overcome this? How do you keep moving toward the goals that everyone says are impossible?
From my good and bad experiences, I can say this:
First, never forget—you are responsible for everything that happens.
When you start listing excuses for your failures, be prepared to face the response you hadn’t thought of at the beginning:
“Well, you didn’t have to accept the job. You could’ve resigned.”
The real answer is to make people believe again.
You must restore belief in everyone inside the club and the organization—through talking, explaining, showing, and using every motivational tool you can.
Also, you need to weed out the rotten apples among your players and continue with the ones who are committed.
Sometimes, instead of signing a new player, a young player who throws himself wholeheartedly into the game can be far more valuable.
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Would you like me to keep this in article/blog style (smooth, like above), or should I restructure it into a shorter, sharper speech/essay style that emphasizes the lessons for coaches?
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