Perhaps the celebrity who is making the most noise on the basketball court is Justin Bieber. Born in Canada, Bieber grew up playing hockey, but seems to have a natural knack for basketball. On the celebrity circuit, his game is frequently compared to fellow country man, Steve Nash.

In the last NBA All-Star Celebrity game, Bieber walked away with MVP honors in a losing effort. He had eight points, four assists and two rebounds. Bieber showed some nifty crossover moves to create his shot and assist teammates. At a charity basketball game in September, Bieber’s team beat Ludacris’ team by staging a late rally. He’s posted video of himself shooting baskets with gal pal Selena Gomez cheering him on.

Like Michael Jordan, Justin Bieber seems to have “the love of the game” down pat.

Justin Bieber vs. Usher in one-on-one

Youth Basketball Coaching Special: Save time, reduce stress and get the most from your team. 30 complete practice plans for the season, an award certificate maker, coaching forms, and more! Go to www.coachingwhiz.com

Deb Viau at the Twin Cities Hoopathon in 2010

The 2011 Twin Cities Hoopathon will be the first without B.J.’s mom, Debbie Viau, who lost her battle with the disease earlier this year.  The Viau’s, along with volunteers and sponsors, continue their fundraising efforts in Debbie’s memory.

This year’s Twin Cities Hoopathon will take place at the University of Minnesota Fieldhouse located at 1800 University Avenue SE, Minneapolis, on Saturday, August 20.  Crunch and the Timberwolves Hoop Troop Dunk Team are scheduled to perform from 4:15 to 4:45 p.m.

“We are in our 14th year, but in some ways it feels like our first,” said B.J. Viau, “Because of a amazing group of young people stepping up and joining the Hoopathon Committee we were able to add a lot more to this year event then ever before.  The Individual Shooting from 2 – 4 p.m. changed from five to three minutes and will be a competition between shooters in their age groups.  The Team Competition being held from 5 – 7 p.m. will have team of five go head to head trying to make as many free throws as possible in three minutes as a team.  There will be two rounds of pool play followed by a single elimination bracket.  After all the shooting concludes we will be hosting our first ever Hoopathon After Party at the famous Upper Cut Boxing Gym in NE Mnpls.  Doors will be open from 7 p.m.  – 1 a.m. with Avian Sunrise taking the stage at 9pm.  If you don’t play basketball or you want to come celebrate all your made free throws, join us for a night of fun and festivities.  Overall, all these new changes to the event this year are going to help set the table for bigger and better events to come!

Per the Hoop-A-Thon website (www.hoopathon.com), “Huntington’s Disease is a devastating, hereditary, degenerative brain disorder for which there is, at present, no effective treatment or cure. HD slowly diminishes the affected individual’s ability to walk, think, talk and reason. Eventually, the person with HD becomes totally dependent upon others for his or her care. Huntington’s Disease profoundly affects the lives of entire families — emotionally, socially and economically. HDSA was founded in 1967 by Marjorie Guthrie when her husband, Woody Guthrie, the American folk singer, lost his long and painful battle with HD.”

The Twin Cities Hoopathon has already raised over $15,000 for this year’s event with a goal of $75,000.  Help the Viau family reach their goal by attending and participating in the event.  If you can’t make it, you can still help the cause by visiting http://www.firstgiving.com/MNHDSA/TCHoopathon and making a donation.

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Sometimes I wonder why I write this blog, but on Saturday I was reminded why by a beautiful event. A good ref made a terrible call for a good reason.

My daughter, CC, had a basketball game today. The championship game of a CYO tournament for 4th grade girls. We got to the gym early hoping to warm up, but the 5th grade girls semi-final game was in progress. I looked up at the scoreboard to see how much time was remaining. Ugh, I thought to myself. The game was only in the 2nd quarter. A bright orange team from a parish about 10 miles away was playing the 5th grade team from my daughter’s school. The orange team was winning decisively.

My daughter spotted some friends and took off. With nothing better to do, I watched the action on the court and I am glad I did.

You could tell that the orange team was well coached because the ball was moving around so effectively. Every girl knew where to go and knew almost instinctively where help was if needed. It was so fluid. It so was beautiful.

There was one girl on the court donned in orange and thick glasses who was following the beautiful flow of the game, but she was a few steps behind everyone else. She always knew where to go, but she was just a little slow to get there. Her teammates would always patiently wait for her to get into position. They would pass the ball to her on occasion even though they probably knew that there might be better options. The girl donned in orange with think glasses was behind, but not left behind.

As the game progressed, the black team from my daughter’s school chipped away at the lead and made a game of it. Still the coach of the orange team did not make any adjustments to the line-up late in the game. He trusted his talented guards to control the final few minutes and protect the lead. He trusted the girl in orange with think glasses to get into the right position.

With 7 seconds on the clock, the orange team held a 7 point lead. The speedy guard from the white team had the ball and was cutting across the court from left to right. The girl with the think glasses was cutting  across the court right to left. She was concentrating so hard on getting into position that she did not know where the ball was. The two girls collided.

It was an obvious foul on the girl in orange. She was not trying to defend, she was just desperately trying to get to her position as coached which she eventually did and stood there as if nothing had happened.

The ref reached for his whistle. He hesitated. He looked up at the clock. 3 seconds left. He looked at the foul situation. Few fouls had been called so neither team was in the bonus. He then blew the whistle.

He turned toward the scoring table and yelled, “Foul on white #10″ It was a bad call for a good reason. Although it was not a shooting foul, he put the girl in orange on the line to shoot free throws.

No one complained. Six girls jogged to the basket and lined up white, orange, white on either side of the lane. Two girls in orange and one in white took their positions at the top of the key. The girl with the thick glasses wearing bright orange stood dutifully in her defensive position on the wing. The position she was so desperately trying to get to when the play started.

The tall skinny ref with grey hair walked over to her and bent down. He said something to her. He handed her the ball and walked her to the line. The girl knew what to do and did not hesitate at all. The ball flew through the air on a beautiful arc with the school’s Prayer for Athletes blue banner hanging in the background.

You could feel all nine girls on the court, the six or so girls on the both benches, the coaches from both teams, the two supposedly impartial refs and the one hundred plus fans praying for the ball to go in.

The ball bounced off the back of the rim.

A teammate rebounded the ball and gave it to the ref. The ref bounced it to the girl on the line. Again, without even a moment of hesitation, she launched the ball up toward the hoop. Again the ball had a beautiful arc, but again the ball bounced off the back of the rim. She was a little too close or a little too strong. A loud AHH came from the fans, the players, the coaches and the refs.

After the game, I wanted to shake the hand of this great ref. I approached him hand extended and told him that he made a great call. He smiled proudly. He told me how he hesitated in making the call. He told me that he was concerned that someone would get mad. Then he told me that his daughter has Down syndrome too.

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Fran Dicari is  the over-scheduled father of over-scheduled athletic kids and author of the youth sports blog StatsDad.com.  He’s a coach, a scorekeeper and an amateur sports photographer. He’s also an executive and partner at Barefoot Proximity, the digital marketing agency that created ManoftheHouse.com and Coachhub.com.

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30 Youth Basketball Practice Plans — Be ready for every practice in 5 minutes! Go to www.coachingwhiz.com

Bowlin was 5-foot-4 and 135 pounds. He looked around at the other finalists and thought, “What the heck am I doing here?”

The answer to that starts in an Arizona hospital bed, where Bowlin lay three years ago, receiving the Catholic Anointing of the Sick sacrament delivered to those near death. Bowlin was only a teenager, but he had been through 70 surgeries already. This one, his parents feared, would be the last.

“This one was different,” remembers Tom, Bowlin’s dad. “Other doctors thought it was far too dangerous of a procedure to even attempt — the smallest of mistakes could end his life.”

Thomas Bowlin was born with a form of spina bifida, a disorder in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth. He had a shunt surgically placed to drain fluid from his brain. Eventually, as a small child, Bowlin was fitted with leg braces below his knees and with the help of crutches, was able to move around.

Somehow, a love of sports developed and thrived.

Propping himself up with one crutch, Bowlin learned to play basketball and baseball from his dad. “He had a great arm, and with the bat in one arm and the crutch in the other, he could hit,” says Tom. “We even looked into him playing football as the field goal kicker’s holder, but thought better of it.”

Thomas wanted to be a part of a team – any team. “I wanted to be like everyone else,” he says.

As he grew older, more medical problems developed. A surgical error when he was 12 years old resulted in Thomas needing to use a wheelchair full-time. When the shunt didn’t work as it was designed, Bowlin endured intense headaches, nausea and fatigue. As the result of scar tissue build-up from his surgeries, Bowlin’s symptoms became more constant when he turned 13.

And still it didn’t stop Thomas from pursuing his love of sports. He joined a local wheelchair basketball team and adapted his shot to a sitting position. “With all of his suffering, Thomas never complained,” says Tom. “He’d play a basketball tournament, come home, and within a couple of days, we’d have to take him to the doctor or emergency room; but his teammates never knew. He didn’t let on.”

Living in Minnesota, a leader in providing adapted athletic opportunities, Thomas had opportunities to play adapted floor hockey, adapted softball, adapted soccer and wheelchair basketball. He played them all, despite his pain. “He would never give up,” says Tom, “and there were lots of opportunities when he could have.”

His parents sought the best care for Thomas from top medical institutions, but nothing worked. The headaches became constant. In his first two years of high school, Thomas could only summon to attend 90 days of classes.

Then, finally, in 2008, the last-ditch surgery in Arizona worked.

After a three-week recovery period, Thomas’ symptoms were gone. “I’d still get an occasional headache,” he says, “but they’re like the ones that everyone has.”

Thomas went right back to the field of play. And his achievements piled up: 14 times he lettered for a varsity sports team; nine times he was selected as captain of his teams; eight times he won all-conference awards; six times he was selected as defensive player of the year.

And his wheelchair basketball team won a national championship.

“I ask myself what goal or image do I have for myself in sports — do I want to just sit back and enjoy myself or try to be a leader?” says Thomas. “And then, I set about identifying the steps I need to take to improve myself and my teammates. For me, sports have been about fitting in.”

He did just that on stage a year ago. He did more than that, actually.

Thomas Bowlin became the first adaptive athlete to win St. Paul Athlete of the Year.

He graduated last June and now, at age 18, he’s planning to attend Southwest Minnesota State and play wheelchair basketball there.

“Being in a wheelchair,” he says, “you don’t think about being on a sports team — having that opportunity. I never thought I’d be able to do some of the things I did playing on a team. I felt very honored to be on a list that included Joe Mauer and Dave Winfield.”

No doubt Mauer and Winfield are just as honored to be on a list that includes Thomas Bowlin.

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This article is also featured at Yahoo Sports’ online magazine The Post Game:  Among Giants: Minnesota Athlete Overcomes 70-Plus Surgeries To Join State’s Greats

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A Holy Trinity third-grader’s shot against St. Matthew Parish in Beaverton, Oregon, sent the third-grade game into overtime where Holy Trinity pulled out a 4 point win.

What a shot! What a memory for that team and player!

Poss launched a shot from half-court and the ball swished through the nets giving Roseville a 58 – 57 victory in dramatic style.  Poss, a sophomore, has started the last 2 seasons for Roseville.  A buzzer-beater victory in the opening game of the season is not a bad way to start the year!

Roseville beats Totino-Grace on half-court shot

Barta’s coaching philosophy has not only passed on a lot of wisdom to his players and helped build community spirit, but has also produced results on the field.  His teams have won 8 Kansas State Championships.  Barta understands that youth sports provide a valuable vehicle to teach life lessons.

If you’re coaching a youth basketball team, you have a wonderful opportunity to pass on some of your own wisdom to players.  Look for opportunities throughout the season, during practices and games, to communicate important messages.  Here’s a sampling for your consideration:

1. Hard work and purpose lead to success. When a player individually or the team as whole puts in extra work, and the results pay off on the court, what better time is there to communicate this message?

2. It’s important to take chances because that’s how we grow and get better. Players at all levels can quickly fall into a pattern of only using skills that they’re most comfortable with.  Younger players might only dribble with their strong hand.  Encourage your players to take chances and reward the effort even if the result is less than optimal.

3. “Inch-by-inch, life is a cinch; yard-by-yard, life is hard.” Challenges are easier when taken in bite-size chunks.  By getting a little better every day, the process is more comfortable than if you try to make a drastic improvement in one practice.  It’s a good message for players to understand to try their best at every practice.

4. Winning and losing with grace. In basketball as in life, players will not always come out on the winning side.  Learning how to deal with one’s emotions immediately after losing a close game is an important experience for players, even if it doesn’t feel too good at the time.  Players can also learn how adjustments made in practice after losses can have a positive impact on future games.

5. Don’t quit. Whenever your team comes from behind and secures a victory provides a great opportunity to reinforce an important message:  never quit.

6. The power and magic of teamwork – everyone makes a difference! The best teams work together as a unit on offense and defense.  It’s not all about scoring and rebounding — every player finds a way to contribute.

7. Getting along within a group.  When working with a group, there’s usually going to be some people you get along with better than others.  Maybe because of similar backgrounds or interests, some players will make immediate connections with some and not so much with others.  Basketball teams provide players opportunities to work together, even with others they may not necessarily like (at least at first).

8. Making good decisions.  I recently listened to a basketball expert who said that when a player has the basketball, they’re frequently making about 10 – 15 decisions in in their head every 20 seconds, e.g. Should I pass, dribble or shoot?  If I pass, who to?  What kind of pass?  How hard?  Should I fake first?  What should I do if I pass? Etc., etc.  The game of basketball forces players to make decisions.  Some players learn from what the coaches say, and for other players, it takes the actual experience.

9. Preparing and meeting challenges.  How do you get ready for a big opponents?  Do you prepare a written plan, put in extra effort and make the most of your practice time?  If a coach makes the connections, it’s easy for players to see that preparation for a tough, cross-town rival in basketball is not dissimilar to preparing for a tough math test.  Both take a plan, extra effort and commitment.

10. Working within a system requires adjustments.  Most coaches will have at least a general set of rules for how the team should conduct their play on the court.  These general set of rules, along with the game of basketball’s rules, constitute a system for the players.  Through the course of the season, players learn how to adjust their style of play to the system.

Lessons learned well at young ages stay with kids for life.  Take advantage of your opportunity to have a positive influence on your players’ lives.  Because, it’s not really about basketball.

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If you’re interested in finding out more about incorporating life lessons into your basketball season check out 30 Youth Basketball Practice Plans and Never Forget Their Kids books available via The Well-Prepared Coach Special.

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30 Youth Basketball Practice Plans — Be ready for every practice in 5 minutes! Go to www.coachingwhiz.com

Think through team goals and plan your approach:  Spend some time now to plan your interactions with your team. Even if you coached many years before, I think it’s a valuable exercise.  By way of example, here are the goals I set one year.

What do I hope each player walks away with after playing this season?

• Increased confidence in their basketball skills: both team and individual.
• A positive experience and some friendships.
• A knowledge of some of the life lessons that the sport can teach:
– Hard work and purpose lead to success.
– A willingness to take chances because that’s how we grow and get better.
– Winning and losing with grace.
– The power and magic of teamwork – everyone makes a difference.

Basketball Focus

• Focus on skills that are important to the game that players will be able to utilize with future teams in the coming years. For example, understanding: a team defense approach, how to box out, pick-and-rolls, give-and-gos, backdoor cuts to the basket, correct shooting form, dribbling with both hands, etc.

• Balance the importance of repetition to learn skills with keeping it fresh.

• Create multi-dimensional players: centers will know how to dribble and guards will know how to rebound.

• Defense creates offense.

• Our team will have few plays, but lots of know-how.

• Place an emphasis on quality practices.  Most other teams will practice the same  types of things that we practice. But, our knowledge of the details and level of execution will set us apart.

• Focus on teaching players not correcting referees.

Keys to My Approach

• Be positive. Kids accomplish the most when they feel confident.

• Breakdown complicated activities into bite-size chunks.

• Encourage a risk-taking environment. The effort needs to be rewarded even with the result is lacking.

• Empower players to think on their own.

• Never forget they’re kids.

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Create your Own Team’s Website

It’s hard to beat face-to-face conversation and email communication to get messages out to your players and their families. As a supplement to those, last season I created a website for our team. I used Shutterfly.com
and was very pleased with the application, the ease of use and the price– it was FREE!

Shutterfly is essentially a photo site. I discovered their ability to host a team website after looking for a tool that would make it convenient to share photos amongst families. Well, not only does Shutterfly provide a tool for sharing photos, but it offers so much more including: a blog, a team calendar, RSS feeds, cool photo display templates, a tool for conducting polls, a weather widget, a map widget (provides directions to your team parents on where games are being played), a download section (post a document and members can download and print it at their convenience), a roster list with contact info, a player availability
schedule and a YouTube gallery (share your favorite videos).

I chose to make the site a private site vs. a public site, so members who I invited have to enter a password before accessing the site. The sections or pages listed above are added to the site by simply selecting the desired tool and either clicking “add section” or “add page.” Photos, visuals and logos can be uploaded to the site to add visual interest. Photos can be cropped and resized to fit the site’s templates. Shutterfly has made the interface very intuitive. The end result is a good-looking website that takes a lot less time than you’d think to set up.”

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© 2010 Michael O’Halloran.  Excerpted with permission of Michael O’Halloran.

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After NC State upset highly favored Houston in the 1983 NCAA Championship in a memorable dunk at the buzzer by Lorenzo Charles, those who watched the game will not forget Jimmy Valvano running up and down the court searching for someone to hug. People also remember Jimmy Valvano for a memorable speech he gave while accepting the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award shortly before he died of cancer. Valvano announced the formation of the “V Foundation”, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for cancer and its motto: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”

1983 NCAA Basketball Championship: NC State vs. Houston

Jimmy Valvano’s 1993 ESPY speech

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30 Youth Basketball Practice Plans — Be ready for every practice in 5 minutes! Go to www.coachingwhiz.com

Stevens, two-time Horizon League Coach of the Year, is known for his thorough team preparation and his calm demeanor on the bench during games.  Even in tight games during the NCAA Tournament run, when TV cameras focused in on the young coach, his poised presence was evident.  His coaching style seemed to rub off on his team, as his players never seemed rattled.  Stevens’ approach to coaching basketball has drawn comparisons to John Wooden’s.

Since the Championship Game appearance, Stevens has appeared on the Letterman Show, sung “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at Wrigley Field, and along with the Butler team, served as Grand Marshal of the Indy 500.  Butler University, where admissions are up 67%, has resigned Stevens to a long-term deal to keep him as head coach.  IMG Worldwide, a sports and entertainment company, recently announced that it had signed Stevens to represent him.

Sports Feel Good Stories caught up with the well-spoken Stevens as he took a short break from his hectic schedule.

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The Brad Stevens Interview

Sports Feel Good Stories: Congratulations on Butler’s NCAA tournament run.  It had to be a special thrill for you and everyone close to the program.  Basketball fans from across the nation seem to unite in support of the Butler feel-good story. What did it feel like to have more people rooting for the Butler team than ever before?

Brad Stevens: You know that’s a great question.  I think the thing that is most gratifying or satisfying thing to us is the chance for former players, former staff members and certainly Butler die-hards to get a chance to experience this, and get a chance to watch this team all the way through.  One of the great by products of the tournament was the opportunity to increase our fan base.  Whether that means increasing your awareness across the globe or whether that means people were -coming to 3-4 games a year are now buying season tickets.  I think that’s a really neat thing and I think that’s something that certainly whenever you’re building a brand and you continue to try to maintain a tradition like we have here; the more people that can jump on board, the more that are welcome.  It’s something we’re really excited about.  Now, the goal is to ride that wave.

Sports Feel Good Stories: Who were some notables that you heard from when Butler had success in the tournament?

Brad Stevens: You heard from people all over the world.  You heard from people stationed overseas, people from California to New York.  It was really unbelievable, and I’ll tell you, that just the letters and cards and well wishes and everything else, despite the fact that we lost the game were amazing and certainly we appreciated each and everyone of them.

Sports Feel Good Stories: What made you more nervous:  your appearance on The Late Show with Letterman or singing “Take me out to the Ballgame” for the Cubs at Wrigley?

Brad Stevens: No doubt, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”  Not even close.

Sports Feel Good Stories: If Gordon Hayward’s half-court shot at the final buzzer in the championship game had gone in, how different would your life had been?

Brad Stevens: You know I think it would’ve been a little bit different but I don’t know if it would’ve been much more crazier than it is now.  I really believe that.  My wife and I were at a function and there were a few different coaches that had won national championship games, and the emcee was talking about the national champions in the room.  We kinda of looked at each other and thought, “Man, we were close.”  But, that’s part of it.  One of the things that we’ve always said is that at the end of day we’re trying to make this so our team feels like they have maximized their opportunities.  Even though there are always things that you’d take back in an one possession game and you’d love to do over, I think those are few and far between.  Our guys gave every, every effort.  They did it for each other and they did it for Butler.

Sports Feel Good Stories: Your poise on the bench during the tournament run was impressive.  In incredibly tight games, you never seem to lose your cool.  Rather, you seem quick with a smile and encouraging words?  How do you do it?

Brad Stevens: Our staff has worked hard to prepare.   And, you feel like, hey, If you prepare well and your players really care, and they’re committed to preparing, then the results take care of themselves and sometimes they don’t work out in your favor and sometimes they do.  But, you don’t have any regrets, if you’ve given your all.  You never think about, at least I don’t think about, the magnitude a basketball game.  All I think about is the basketball game, itself.  It’s easier for me to keep that in perspective than maybe it used to be, but I really don’t get overly consumed with what people on the outside think and that probably helps as well.

Sports Feel Good Stories: Tennis star Roger Federer claims to have been a terror on the court before he finally realized he needed to control his emotions to play his best game.  Your unflappable quality:  was it easy to come by?

Brad Stevens: I get more of that reputation because people watched me on TV more and I’m probably not as unflappable as people think, but at the same time, I’ve tried my best to be the voice for our players and I think that’s easier said than done.  I really like for those guys to go out and play the game and let the chips fall where they may.  We’re coaching and making adjustments and all those things.  I’m not good enough to do that and not have a clear head.  So, it’s important to me to try to stay poised.

Sports Feel Good Stories: What’s your basketball coaching philosophy in a nutshell?

Brad Stevens: The bottom line, and I’ve said this many times, if people think of Butler, then I want them to think first of a team.  That’s my goal in all of this part of the journey for me is to a tremendous team experience:  To get guys to think outside of themselves, to have guys really want to achieve for others.  We’ve been really blessed here in the people department.

Sports Feel Good Stories: Bill Simmons’  The Book of Basketball details the “secret” of winning basketball as revealed to the author by Isiah Thomas.  Here it is:  The secret of winning basketball is that it’s not about basketball.  It’s about team, sacrifice and put the good of the team above the individual.  What’s the secret of winning basketball?

Brad Stevens: I heard the book is great. Yes, team plays a huge role.  But, I think there’s a level of talent you need to be able to do that.  We got to the Final Four, and the fact of the matter, is that we’ve got good players.  That’s one of the things that can sometimes go unnoticed but at the same time I think do we get there without a having great “team-first” mindset? Probably not.  Certainly team plays a big role in achievement, because it’s just like any other company if you have 12 very talented people, but they’re all on their own page, rather than on one page, they’re just not going to get as far.  You know, I had a guy tell me when I was growing up, “it’s better for all of us to be on the wrong page, than half of us to be on the right page and half of us to be on the wrong page.”  I figure that’s really true.

Sports Feel Good Stories: Is it tougher to coach good defense or good offense?  Why?

Brad Stevens: It depends on your players.  Sometimes plays that are fairly routine or run by a lot of people, look a lot better when run by great players.  They can score with the ball, do different things with the ball, able to break it down with the dribble.  All you need to give those guys sometimes is just a small angle.  You don’t need to necessarily get them a wide open shot.  It all goes back to players and abilities.  Good defense is a lot easier to coach when you have guys who can move laterally, are strong, can guard multiple positions, and all those types of things.  So, again it goes back to personnel.

Sports Feel Good Stories: What basketball coaching books do you recommend?

Brad Stevens: The Sport Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh is a great book and I’m huge Dungy fan so I recommend Quiet Strength and Uncommon:  Finding Your Path to Significance.

Sports Feel Good Stories: For young basketball players intent on improving their games, what advice might you give them on how to improve their driveway workouts?

Brad Stevens: I’m a big believer in the concept of deliberate practice, working on one thing and really focusing in and honing in on that and becoming great at it.  It doesn’t mean you can only work on one part of your game, but when you get in a driveway or in the gym by yourself, work for a reason.  So many people misconstrue what a good workout is, work like it’s game like, work like it’s going to be translated directly into a game, and sometimes for some people that means working to minimize your weaknesses and maximize and perfect your strengths.  There’s certain things in this game, shooting for instance, that if you’re a good shooter — there a lot of good shooters — but if you’re a great, great shooter and don’t miss when you’re open, then that’s a real skill, a real trait.  You can find yourself on any number of teams at any number of levels.  Players who can do that but struggle to do other things can still play but they need to learn how to manage those weaknesses.

Sports Feel Good Stories: What suggestions might you give youth basketball coaches to get the most out of their practice time?

Brad Stevens: All I say is keep the big picture in mind and be yourself.

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