/ Coaching Retreat, July 2007 in Tunica, Mississippi

Eric Musselman – NBA Coach 1 On his current status

 very honored and happy to be here  when I had a job I had 211 calls and heard from people all the time  when I got fired I didn’t receive 11 calls from people  you definitely find out who your friends are when you get fired or let go  I’ve been working out with and hanging out with the players and coaches at St Mary’s, I invite any coach who has a job to always invite another coach who isn’t working to come around your team, its good for both parties

On being a coach and a father

 I encourage all of you who are fathers or know someone who is to visit www.allprodad.com, it is Tony Dungy’s site and they will put you on a email list to receive a inspiration note every day about coaching, being a good father, or good husband  Most times when guys are coaches they put their family on the backburner when things get going  My father was great, he never did that to me and my sister Nicole  I cant thank Coach Fratello enough for allowing my sons to travel on some trips, plane trips, with the team when I was coaching in Memphis and my two boy were living in Northern California  I think that you should try and involve your family and especially your kids in as much stuff as you can  You cant be the best coach that you can unless you are happy  I think it helped my relationship this past yr with Mike Bibby because of the respect shown his his son  I allowed him to bring his son to practice and let him run around the team  We didn’t necessarily see eye to eye on the court but I felt he respected me for allowing him to do that  So when it was the time of year when we were still playing and everyone knew that I wasn’t going to be the coach of the Kings much longer he never said negative things about me to the media or what not

On Your team having an Identity

 an identity is needed for any team  it is also needed for the media  everyone needs to know what you value and what you see as the important things for your team to be successful  said that it takes 50 games for you to get to know your team

Collated by Rob Beveridge – Bevo International Coaching

Larry Brown /John Calipari Coaching Retreat, July 2007 in Tunica, Mississippi

On Being a 2  your staff is very important  if you are a young coach you need to hire at least one guy who is older and smarter than you  you need to be able to trust him  it was a big mistake in my recent job  I hired all young guys because I thought it was going to be important to bring energy to practice and on the floor with workouts  My first job was when I was 23 yrs old in the CBA  My dad told me to go and get the best players I could that came from good college coaching backgrounds

On Team Goals

 if you give your team one goal they will probably meet it  it will help in your teams identity  if you talk about that one thing and stress it every day to your team, they will meet it

On His Career Best Book

 we came up with a goal book for every player when I was a head coach  we took every players best year in a statistical category and asked him to have a “career best” year  ex 1998 averaged 20.0 pts, this season average 20.1

 you just want him to do a little better and they will work to achieve it  not ask them to do big things that might seem impossible  also we had an 82 game journal that we asked the rookies to keep  ask them to write in the journal before and after the games  were they hung-over before the game  how did the game go  it was interesting because the guys that really followed it and stayed with it truly, they had great seasons  gave examples of Jason Terry with , Eric Dampier in Golden State and Kevin Martin with Kings

On Special Situations

 I would advise anyone if they have a chance to go and watch a pro team or another team in a different sport work out  I went and watched some teams and how much they worked on Special teams in football I took some of that back to  I would try and take advantage of some of those  free throw line back to def  def back to fast break

Collated by Rob Beveridge – Bevo International Coaching

Larry Brown /John Calipari Coaching Retreat, July 2007 in Tunica, Mississippi

THOUGHTS ON FAMILY, ENVIRONMENT, TEAM BUILDING: 3  It is important to try and incorporate as many ways to have family around as often as possible. Enables you to be a better family member (father, husband, etc.) and also is beneficial as a personal support system to deal with the nature of our business. This also applies to incorporating the families of assistant coaches and players. Felt this really benefited his relationship with Mike Bibby.  Great web site to sign up for: WWW.AllProDad.com - NFL sponsored.

 Set goals which lead to the establishment of an identity for your team.  Utilize a “Balance Card” to monitor the amount of time you spend on Offense and Defense on a daily and weekly basis.  If you set goals and address them on a daily basis, they soon become more attainable. This helps the team take ownership in your goals. First year with the Warriors the goal was to lead the NBA in scoring and they finished 2nd. Next year wanted to be the most improved defensive team in the league and were 9 points better than the previous year.  “Career Year” booklet for players. Statistical goal setting, other teams scouting report data about that player, journal to record practice time, personal notes.  It is advantageous to study other those in other sports and how they operate. Has learned a lot from watching Pro Football Practices and the Baseball Draft. Football practices are incredibly efficient. Good way to have a game day shoot-around.  Football Special Teams are a lot like Basketball Special Situations. Use an opposing team’s Free Throw as a time to utilize special teams.

 It is wise to recruit / draft players that have been well-coached. Was something his father strongly believed in. He liked to coach four studs and a bunch of coaches’ sons.  A good football concept is to name your play calls something the helps trigger the players to understand what you want to accomplish when you run it.  Chuck Daly always said it takes 50 games in the NBA season to learn about the true makeup of your team.

To grow as a coach, it is important to try and work for those people you view as the best head coach. Once you are a head coach, you need to hire a veteran assistant who can “coach” you. Made a huge mistake in Sacramento by not hiring someone of this background. Lastly, you must have good staff made up of loyal assistants. Loyalty is the key

Collated by Rob Beveridge – Bevo International Coaching