Kevin Eastman Basketball Coaching Notes

Kevin Eastman – 84 Bullet Points

1. Refocus their lens
2. Put gas in their tank when it’s appropriate
3. Talent – we don’t really want players with talent. We want talented players. The difference is the ED – the extra dimension. Talent plus something: disciplined player, tremendous drive, dedicated to his craft, player who is incredibly focused.
4. 6 things that are important to a doc rivers team

• 1. Excellence
• 2. Execution
• 3. No excuses
• 4. Do. Your. Job. COMPLETELY.
• 5. Get over yourself
• 6. Be a good teammate. More importantly, help a teammate. If you have to push someone down to build yourself up, you can’t be in our organization.

5. Success lies in the simplicity. Confusion lives in the sophistication. With confusion doubts, fear, and questions. Keep it simple, please! We don’t want stupid in our program.
6. 4 Relationships that exist in all championship programs

• 1. The players have to like, respect, and trust the other players
• 2. The players have to like, respect, and trust the coaches.
• 3. The coaches have to like, respect, and trust the players.
• 4. The coaches have to like, respect, and trust each other.

7. How did you get to where you’ve gotten?

• 1. I go through my life with big eyes, big ears, and a small mouth. I already know what I know. If all I know is what I know, then I don’t know enough. I need to know what you know. The most inquisitive guy was Kevin Garnett.

8. As you go through your coaching career, you have a choice. You can a spectator in life in coaching lessons, or you can be a student of life in coaching lessons.
9. 3 sets that you must be concerned with

• 1. Skillsets. Are you and your players doing what you need to do to improve your skillsets  |  Basketball Coaching Notes
• 2. Mindset. How do you approach each day? How do your players approach each day? Mindset is talked about a lot each day with the Clippers.
• 3. Reset. Lose a game – reset. Play poorly – reset. Reset is all about honesty in the process. The one person we can’t con is ourselves. The day after Miami beat the

10. The best players don’t talk a good game, they work a good game. Chris Paul in the post. Tim Duncan the day after a loss.
11. The best of the best you must have these three things:

• 1. Improvement stamina. How can I get better? Be willing to keep going.
• 2. Development discipline. They know what they don’t know. They know what they’re not good at. And what they need to improve.
• 3. Greatness grind. Coming in every single day. The best of the best understand the concept of every. Every second of every game and on and on. Is your knowledge acquisition an EVERY thing.

12. Whether you’re a player or a coach, there are two things you have to make a decision between: entitlement and investment. Teams of entitlement never win titles. Investment in reading. Kevin Eastman reads 2 hours every single of the year. EVERY day of the year. 4 AM is now the time you wake up, not the time you call it a day. Brad Stevens Indianapolis paper – 13 lessons in article.

• 1. Connected group wins championships.   |  Basketball Coaching Notes
• 2. Even keel through a season
• 3. Wants to be better each day. – Kevin will ask him how he did that. He’s the best question asker in the world.

13. 3 types of hours that the best have to understand

• 1. Long hours
• 2. Odd hours
• 3. Surprise hours

14. Be on a mission every day to seek and find. Information! Think and apply. Once we get that stuff, we have to do something with it. Story about how they give away 32 grammy’s each year. NBA gives one trophy a year. He took a little article about the grammy’s and made it work for his team
15. If you want to be a great coach you must master 4 tions (shuns)

• 1. Evaluation of talent and character  |  Basketball Coaching Notes
• 2. Information – about our players. Intel.
• 3. Organization – your system, your process. Process driven. It’s a grind. You can’t get bored with the process. Pound the rock.
• 4. Communication –

16. The three ins  |  Basketball Coaching Notes

• 1. Buy in – Once you get the buy in you need them to lock in. There is no expiration date on buy in. No expiration date on honesty. No expiration date on being a good teammate.
• 2. Believe in. Before you get buy in you have to get believe in. How do you get believe in? Trust. Trust needs three things:

1. Time
2. Consistency
3. Proof
3. Give in. Don’t confuse it with believe in. Can’t win a championship with give ins. Need BUY IN.
17. 3 things we all must do  |  Basketball Coaching Notes

• 1. Learn from the past. Occasionally visit. Occasionally learn. Don’t live there.
• 2. Live in the present.
• 3. Prepare for the future. Scouting report. Career. “We will get you there before you even think you’re there.” Be there before you get there! Ray Allen hit that shot because he had practice laying on the floor, jumping up, back pedaling to shot and draining it.

18. If you want to be good, you have to spend time at it.
19. There are three starts. Where are your players and where are you?

• 1. Jump start.  |  Basketball Coaching Notes
• 2. Head start. – You may have a head start, but it’s a marathon. Who’s there at the finish line?
• 3. Restart. – Get fired?

20. All of us want to be successful. Our players want to be successful. Success is really smart and it’s really hard. The one true test it gives us is the toughest test of all – failure.
21. The best teams have to overcome mad, sad, and hard. Mad is selfish. Must get that player over themselves. Sad – team won but he didn’t play well. Get over it. Success’s greatest test is failure and embarrassment.
22. Myths of success:

• 1. Hard work is the key. The key is not the right word. Hard work is a given. Hard work is the price of admission. The more successful you get, the price goes up. The separator is the un-required work. The early wake ups. The extra reading.
• 2. Everyone talks about acquire knowledge. That’s the given. It’s applying the knowledge. Put it into your life. Success leaves footprints. Find them, follow them, and then fit them.
• 3. We have been told to network to keep moving up. Networking is a number. You must grow a relationship. That is how you network. When Kevin meets someone, he gives for a full year before he ever asks for anything. “If ever I can help you, just call me. I’ll do my best to get it done.”
• 4. Never pass up a basketball opportunity. (not a myth. This is a truth.)
• 5. In order to be successful, you need to find time. No. You need to MAKE time.
• 6. Passion. If you have passion you can do whatever you want to do. NO. But at some point, your knowledge and your skills have to catch up to your passion.
• 7. Coaches moving up: Must choose between how much and who. It’s who you’re with when you’re younger that makes the difference. Choose WHO, not how much. “Does he invest the time necessary to be a great assistant coach.” “Is he willing to do the work?”
• 8. Be ready. NO. Be prepared! Have your system book. What if you get a call tomorrow? Have your game-plan ready.

23. The easiest place to be a leader is on the floor. Who leads in all the other places?
24. At some point in your life you must do this – Write a loved one a letter. Write every possible thing that they need to do to be successful. And then make two copies. One for them when it’s their time to receive it. And then keep the other one for yourself. And then go back and study it.
25. The best aren’t scared of competition. To be the best you have to beat the best at their best.
26. Relationship venues with your players – there’s more to it than the floor.
27. Every night you have the chance to spend time with the best via YouTube, Ted, Readings, etc.
28. Why is Popovich so good at relationships? If you care, they will give. Pop has his arm around 3-4 players per day.
29. What timezones do you work in?  |  Basketball Coaching Notes

• 1. Spare time – I’ll do it when I get to it
• 2. Part time – Every now and then
• 3. Full time – Now we’re getting close
• 4. All the time – That’s the one that separates.

30. Never burn bridges. Build them or maintain them. Even if you get fired. Kill them with class.
31. If you’re good enough the money will find you.
32. Know your No’s

• 1. No procrastination – First thing Kevin does in the morning is the thing that day that he will hate to do. Has reframed his vocabulary – no more problems. Challenges and competitions.

33. DOCisms – “He who angers you owns you.” “Budget your bitches (complaints).” Limit it to the ones that you need to win in order to win.
34. Assistant Coaches: 90% Evaluation, 10% emotion. Don’t jump up and down. Focus. Coach.
35. Coaches have body language too.
36. Role players think you think they suck. Give them little stats to work for. One putback. One sprint ahead. Get fouled and make em.
37. Create buy-in: statistics, film, charting, shots.
38. The easiest thing to have is an open door. They only come in when you have an open heart, open ears, and an open mind. That’s where Doc excels. He lets them talk. In order to get into their heads, you must go through their hearts. Go right to the heart to get to the head. Don’t go right to the head.
39. When times are tough leadership is about responsibility, not invisibility.
40. If you change your habits you can change your limits. If you change your limits, you can change your life.
41. Fear is a choice.  |  Basketball Coaching Notes

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Kevin Eastman Basketball Coaching Notes