I have had the extreme pleasure of watching my daughter’s club team this season. There is not a selfish basketball player on the team. Yes, you heard me. I am not kidding. It is an absolute joy to watch. In that spirit, I wanted to provide you with some thoughts on what makes an unselfish basketball player.
1. Know and Accept Your Role
Basketball is the ultimate team game. It takes five players doing a variety of tasks, all working together to make a winning team. What is your child’s role? I would strongly suggest not trying to answer that question for yourself. Instead, empower your child to discuss their role with the head coach. Once it is defined, accept that role no matter how much you may disagree with it. My daughter is a great example of this. During the club season, she plays the shooting guard as her primary role. On her high school team, however, she plays the center position. If I am frank, this causes me great distress. I have worked very hard with my daughter to obtain the ball-handling skills to be a guard. I have never discussed my displeasure with the coach. I stuck to my philosophy and instructed my daughter not only to accept the role but to embrace the role for the good of her team. The ironic thing is that all of the schools that have offered a scholarship to my daughter have expressed that her ability to play both inside and outside has been a driving factor in their interest in her.
What happens if you do not like the role? Well, I would suggest putting the extra time into developing the skills necessary to change the coach’s perception of your child. This is one of the best opportunities to teach your child a lifelong lesson. The ability or skill to have the discipline to work the extra hours to achieve a worthy goal is an invaluable lesson.
2. Shot Selection
There is a fine line between a good shot and a forced shot. It is tough to describe, but we all know a forced shot when we see it. A missed forced shot, in my mind, is a turnover. Generally speaking, a good shot is developed from a defense that has been broken down by a team fully executing their offensive sets. Good players let the game come to them. They capitalize on these defensive breakdowns to create their shots and utilize their offensive moves to the basket. The ability to recognize a good shot from a forced shot comes with years of playing the game and proper coaching.
3. Commitment to Defense
If a player is not getting shots or their shots are not falling, they can always significantly impact the game by playing great defense. Unselfish players are usually the ones who take great pride in the effort and intensity they put in on the defensive end of the floor. The selfish player “dogs it” on defense because their teammate did not get them the ball in the last possession. Make playing good team defense a priority in your child’s game.
4. Offensive Rebounding
There are times when the ball does not come in your direction during the game. I have always stressed to my daughter to focus on her offensive rebounding to create the shots for herself. I remember one high school game last year where she scored fifteen points in the first half on shots she obtained from offensive rebounds. In addition, nothing gets your child’s teammates up off the bench cheering more than seeing their teammate fly in from the three-point line, grab an offensive rebound, and put it back in. It is the true blue-collar work of basketball.
5. The Extra Pass
There are many times while running the offense or sprinting down the court on a fast break that a player gets an open shot. But is it a good shot? One more pass can often turn the open shot into a “great look.” There are no hard or fast rules for the extra pass. However, the coaches and the fans, for that matter, sure do recognize one when they see it. The commitment to this type of unselfishness turns good teams into great teams.
6. Accept Responsibility
One of the universal truths of all sports is that no player plays perfectly all of the time. I challenge my daughters to do two things when they or one of their teammates makes a mistake. I tell them that they must have a “next play mentality” and then also freely accept blame whether it is truly their fault or not. The point is that as soon as the mistake happens, it’s over. Move on. The game must go on. Nothing is served by feeling bad, demeaning a teammate, or exhibiting poor body language. Learn from the error and try your best not to let it happen again.
Conclusion
During last year’s high school basketball season, I asked my youngest daughter why she was not taking more shots. I told her I saw her pass up on a few opportunities during the game. She told me that she did not want to look stupid to the fans or to her teammates. I think what she is really saying is that she wants to play the game the right way. I asked her if she would really be happy with scoring no points in a game. She replied honestly that, of course, she wanted to score but that she wanted to win more. If she scores zero and they win, she can be happy with that. I thought to myself that she had turned the corner. She is getting it. The fun is in winning with her teammates and for her school.
I hope you enjoyed this article and provided some discussion points you can use with your son or daughter. If you enjoyed it, please consider subscribing to the site by going to www.youthbasketballparent.com
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