Thoughts on Jeremy Tyler and Girls' Basketball

I tried to refrain from the Jeremy Tyler discussion, but finally added my two cents here.

Also, after working out with a Division I women's basketball player, I had to vent about the experience, which I did here.

Hype, Rip-offs and Basketball Development

Last week, I wrote about some guy using hype to market a basketball development program that would make you better in 60 seconds.

I have worked for three years to create the best possible online basketball training program, but I refuse to market with hype and ridiculous claims. In fact, on my blog, I wrote:

I personally guarantee that Train for Hoops will NOT make you a better player in 60 seconds. Further, I guarantee that to get 10x better at anything will take weeks, months or even years, not 60 seconds.

I believe in effort and hard work. I believe that every great player works hard, despite the public's perception, which is why I highlight articles about players like LeBron James that highlight their effort in the off-season to improve. Nobody becomes a great player through some gimmicky online program.

Train for Hoops is not a gimmick or a cure-all. It is a long term development program. It is individualized and progressive. Every time that you give the program feedback, the program becomes more and more individualized for your skill level. As you show improvement, the program grows more intense and adds more difficult drills or skills.

There is nothing flashy. No hype. It is the exact program that I use with clients who have gone on to Division I scholarships, McDonald's All-Americans and professional careers. But, it will not make you better overnight. You have to do the work. The program is a guide, like any teacher, but the player has to do the work to improve.

Today, a friend forwarded me another mega-hype marketing program. This one, however, is funny because the producer of this program asked me to be a part of his program. So, I can explain the program.

A guy who I have never heard of or never met emails me. He tells me that he has collected the 12 best trainers in the country. He name-drops a couple and I have never heard of them. Now, I don't know every trainer in the country, but I spend a lot of time talking to trainers and I know trainers who train players like Maya Moore, A.J. Price, Jermaine O'Neal, Jacki Gemelos, Vikki Baugh, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Martin and others, so I know some decent trainers. Deciding on the best 12 trainers is purely one person's opinion anyway, so I suppose it was meant to make me feel honored to be part of such a highly acclaimed group.

His pitch was that I write a chapter for his book on any subject that I want. In exchange, I would get a link and percentage of sales from the link. This is a common online marketing tool. He is not the first person to ask me to be a part of such a program.

I declined. I have my own projects. I value my time too much to invest time in someone else's money-making scheme. And, frankly, I hate these get rich quick schemes that make promises that they cannot fulfill.

He claims that by reading his book:

You are about to discover how you can effortlessly transform yourself from a basketball outcast to a bluechip baller.

Nobody gets good without effort. I will say it again. At Train for Hoops, I guarantee that you will not effortlessly improve. I guarantee that to become a better player, you will have to work hard over a period of months and years to achieve your goals.

Look, when kids that I train complain about a drill being too hard, I simply say "If it was easy, everyone would do it" and "Practice in proportion to your aspirations." If you want to be great, you have to have great practice habits, which includes concentration, not just time. If these hyped, gimmicky programs worked, every player would use them and nobody would have to practice or break a sweat.

He claims:

The only reason why your hoop dreams have failed you in the past is because you did not have the exact success blueprint found in the XYZ System.

Look, there are many ways to improve and many different types of players and body types. But, the one consistency is that people who are successful work very hard to be successful. Any program that promises quick results or guarantees overnight improvement is just marketing and hype.

Learning from the NFL Draft's Best

The Baltimore Ravens have been the best drafting team in the NFL this decade. One reason is patience and drafting for talent, not need:

The Ravens usually use free agency to fill gaps in the roster, because Newsome does not like to feel pressured by a need on draft day. Even when there is a true need, Newsome sticks to the mantra: right player, right price.

Coaching and Management

People in Los Angeles used to complain about Mitch Kupchak. Gooc thing Phil Jackson isn't the Lakers' GM. In an interview with Dan Patrick, Jackson said:

Dan Patrick asked Phil Jackson who he would want to start a team with. Jackson said that power players are really the key to the NBA. There are exceptions, like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, but he would take Dwight Howard over James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul if he was starting a team right now.

I don't even know where to begin. LeBron James is so far ahead of everyone else right now - if starting a team right now. Can you imagine James playing in the Triangle? He already had arguably the greatest statistical year in NBA history and his teammats love playing with him. And you would take Howard because he is a big guy? Sure.

NBA Coaches

I often write about coaches on my other blog, and while I am a coach, I do think coaches are somewhat overrated (John Calipari makes $4-million per season as a college basketball coach!! Pete carroll is the highest paid employee at USC and Steve Sarkisian, his offensive coordinator, was 4th before he left to be UW's Head Coach! Really?).

Here is Bill Simmons on NBA coaches:

34. Boris Diaw

Reborn as an all-around player with Charlotte (since New Year's: 16-6-5, 49 percent FG, 40 percent 3FG), giving us 2009's best example of the Devin Harris/Avery Johnson Corollary: If you have a choice between making a major trade or firing a coach who clearly isn't working out, always fire the coach first. OK? OK.

(Here's how dumb coaches are: Just this season, we witnessed coaches playing Kevin Durant at shooting guard, slowing down Steve Nash, playing slow-it-up with the Sixers, bringing Rip Hamilton off the bench, burying Anthony Randolph on a lottery team, playing Darius Songaila over JaVale McGee on a lottery team, ignoring the stat that's about to impress you when we get to the Nowitzki paragraph, and doing everything that Mike Dunleavy did. There's a reason 85 percent of these guys get canned within three years.)

12. Dirk Nowitzki... with a ghastly 39.2 percent. Why not play him at center and embrace their stylistic advantage with Dirk in the slash-and-kick era? Not to keep touting 82games.com, but I logged onto their best plus-minus for five-man units" page to check where Kidd-Terry-Howard-Dirk-Brandon Bass ranked ... and they were first. Can't say I was shocked. But here's what did shock me: They've played only 123 minutes together. I keep telling you: Coaches are dumb.

John Wall: #1 pick in 2009!?

According to Internet stories today, John Wall may be eligible for the 2009 NBA Draft as a 5th-year high school senior. It depends on your interpretation of the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, as explained by Tom Ziller:

Wall turns 19 in September, so he meets that. The question revolves around
whether Wall, as a fifth-year high school senior, qualifies as a player a year
out from his class' graduation. Or, at what point did or does Wall become part
of the graduating class of 2009 versus the graduating class of 2008? Is this set
upon entering high school? Because Wall did not graduate last year but took high
school classes this year, does that make him a part of the class of 2009 in a
legal sense?

As a Sacramento King fan (kind of, the Maloofs make it difficult), I hope he's in the 2009 NBA Draft. I would be excited to select Wall #1 and install him as the PG of the future in Sacramento. Just check out the video:

Some thoughts for the 2009 WNBA Draft

As the WNBA Draft nears, several articles have mentioned taking a player to fill a need, rather than taking the best player available.

Atlanta picks first and has several point guards on the roster, yet some feel UConn's Rene Montgomery is the #1 player in the draft. Do they choose Montgomery or go with Louisville's Angel McCoughtry?

Washington picks second needs a center, though most believe Montgomery, McCoughtry and Maryland's Marissa Coleman are better than Oklahoma's Courtney Paris. So, do the Mystics pick Paris to fill a glaring need or one of the consensus top three players?

The draft is the best way to improve a team. Plenty of teams chased Lauren Jackson in free agency, but she remained with Seattle. It's hard to sign a Jackson, candace Parker, Lisa Leslie or Diana Taurasi as a free agent because their teams want to keep them. So, drafting a superstar, when you have the chance, is essential.

I don't know if Coleman, Montgomery or McCoughtry is the best player. I watched Montgomery play more often, so I am biased towards her, but Coleman had the single most impressive game (that I watched) in the last several years and earlier in the year I was convinced that McCoughtry was the best player. So, without meeting them and getting a sense for their personality and their mental skills, I don't know who is the top player.

However, Atlanta and Washington must draft the player who they believe has a chance to be a superstar regardless of position. McCoughtry draws comparisons to Sheryl Swoopes, which definitely would warrant the #1 pick. Coleman appears ready and able to take over a WNBA game as she can score in multiple ways. And, I think Montgomery can be the best PG in the WNBA shortly.

Atlanta and Washington need to ignore needs and pick the player it feels will be a star. In Washington, I would probably lean toward Coleman as a hometown player if I felt that she can handle the hometown pressure - some players do better if they get away from that type of pressure. In Atlanta, I would pick the player who I believed in.

Picking for need is the best way to end up at the top of the draft next season.

Joseph Benavidez beats Jeff Curran at WEC 40

Joseph Benavidez, who trains with and fights like Urijah Faber, defeated Jeff Curran in a unanimous decision. One of the most exciting fights that I have seen this year. Certainly more exciting than the mega-hyped GSP vs Penn fight.

I saw Clay Guida in his corner. Is Guida training with Faber now? Or, did they just train with Guida while in Illinois? That's a crzy, unorthodox threesome: Faber, Guida and Benavidez.

Bowles gets his chance at Torres next, but hopefully this puts Benavidez as the most logical fight for the winner of the Torres/Bowles fight.

Another MMA fighter repping for Sacramento and Ultimate Fitness.