Part VI - The Secret Of Longevity - Taping The Floor.

The 1995-96 season was my second year coaching high school basketball. I was named the head ninth grade boys coach at R.J. Reynolds and to say I was focused on being the best coach I could be was an understatement. I felt like I had a chance to establish myself as a high school coach. I was named the head ninth grade coach in June of 1995 which gave me five months to prepare for the season.

Howard West coached me in high school and hired me to be on his staff. He had a lot of success and I felt the best way for me to grow was to watch how he did things.

Saturday, October 28, 1995: We had just finished our last preseason workout at Reynolds. Tryouts were starting in a couple of days and my hope was to take the rest of the weekend off and get ready for the season. We finished the workout at 9:30 am and I went downstairs to work on our shared ninth grade / JV team room. My goal was to be done by 11:00 so I could go home and relax. Coach West was gracious enough to stay around and keep the gym open to allow me to work on the room. I went to Coach West's office when I was done and told him I was leaving and he asked me if I wanted to go to lunch with him. Part of me was like "No" but, he asked, I always learned a lot from him, and he did stick around while I finished the team room.

We went to Ham's on Stratford Road (for those familiar with Winston-Salem) and talked about the upcoming season. He asked me what my goals were and I told him I'd like to be the best coach I could possibly be. Coach West gave me the following advice "Everyone has the same opportunity to be great, but the great ones tend to do the things that others can do but aren't willing to do".

He asked me if everything was in place for the start of the season and I told him "Yes, everything except we don't have a three point line in the auxiliary gym (aka 'the girls gym')". He said "Well, if you want, we can go back to school and I can help you put the lines down." In my mind I'm thinking "No, I want to go home and watch football", but I knew that tryouts are starting and we needed the three point line on the floor. I said "Yes, let's go do it" and off we went.

I learned how to measure out the appropriate amount of strips of tape and then how to be patient enough to make sure the dimensions were 100% correct. He stayed right there with me talking to me about basketball and life and when we were done it was 3:30. My day was pretty much gone, but I had the satisfaction that the job was done.

Little did I know how the symbolism and future value of taping the floor that day would play out in my life.

Taping the floor that day was an inconvenience for me. I learned later on in life that inconveniences were really opportunities in disguise.

I have learned and seen that inconveniences allow for:

1. Peer Separation.
2. Personal Improvement.
3. Honest Evaluation.
4. Amazing Opportunities.
5. The Building of Bridges.

Separation.

We all want to be the best at what we do professionally. I hear "I want to be the best" all of the time from my players. The question I ask is what Coach West asked me "Are you willing to do the extra stuff required that others can do but won't". When it comes to being a great basketball player, will you spend time away from your team practice seriously working on improving your game, your mind and your body. It is hard, it requires discipline and it requires love, but the great ones understand that. The great ones don't force themselves to do the extra things, they just understand that is the requirement and they do it. Giving an extra 30-60 minutes a day to your craft when others aren't can add up to an extra seven hours of work at the end of a week. If you do that for a month and you are almost a full thirty hours ahead of someone else. That's some serious separation.

Improvement.

I know from a personal standpoint and to use as a real example is weekend basketball. Most of you know that I have run a club program since 1996. Many who know I have that program ask "Don't you get tired of coaching every Saturday or running around during the summer coaching your teams?" Of course... I am human. However, I know that I am providing opportunities (see below) for others, and the collateral "damage" that comes from coaching so much away from high school ball is that it makes me better. Coaching 6-8 games each weekend allows for me to pro and con my strategy and approach. I see what works and what doesn't, how to handle certain situations, how to deal with different personalities among many, many other things. It can be viewed as an inconvenience from outsiders, but I know I love it and I know how much it makes others, and myself, better.

Honest Evaluation.

An inconvenience allows you to take an honest evaluation of how much you really want to accomplish a certain task. I have mentioned putting in the extra work and if that is perceived as an inconvenience or not. If you feel like you are forcing yourself to do something to stay ahead, that probably isn't healthy. If doing extra feels good, albeit inconvenient, then you have a chance at great things. I always use the example of ordering a good burger. It's dinner time and you are in the mood for a burger. You don't want just any fast food burger, you want the best. However, there is a fast food place ten minutes from your house while the best burger is maybe twenty minutes away. Do you do what's convenient and settle for average or are you willing to take that extra few minutes to drive a little further and get what you really know you want? You get to have that honest look into what you're willing to do, because typically if something is really that important to you, you'll do what's required, not what's convenient.

Opportunities.

The more you do the more opportunities seem to present themselves. Outsiders, criticis, harters.... they'll call it luck. Luck requires being present and prepared. If you aren't present, luck typically doesn't happen. If you aren't prepared, you typically can't take advantage of luck.

Back in 2021, the year following the COVID epidemic, the summer Olympics were taking place. The Olympics were to be held in 2020 but COVID-19 postponed everything. In 2021, USA Basketball was in the middle of transitioning their national team directors. The outgoing director called me and asked if I would help the new national team director with a couple of events that were stacking up because of the Olympic date change. I had been a part of USA Basketball since 2007 because of a perceived inconvenience in 2005 (another story for another time) and with that experience I got the call to help.

I had worked in a number of areas with USA Basketball over the years and they needed me to work as support staff for the U16 Women's National Trials in Indianapolis in June and then team practice in Washington, DC in August. I then would travel with the team in August to Guanajuato, Mexico for the FIBA Americas Championships. In between, during July, I was asked to go to Las Vegas and be a team liaison for the Nigerian Women's National Team as they prepared for the Olympics in Tokyo.

Was it luck to get to experience everything I got to during the summer of 2021, depends on how you look at it? In 2005, I flew out to Colorado Springs, home of USA Basketball, on my own, because I wanted to learn more about the organization. From there, a relationship was built and a coaching opportunity came about in 2007 and I have been with them ever since. It was inconvenient to fly out on my own dime and my own time, but it was something I wanted to do to grow as a coach.

Who knew that I'd still be with them in 2021 (and actually now being 2023) and have all of the opportunities that I did that summer.

The Building of Bridges.

That summer of 2021, I wasn't sure what being part of the USA Basketball support staff would entail. I had been on the selection committee and I had been on the coaching staff, but I had no idea what my new role would be.

I was giving up coaching my high school and club team in the summer and being away from my family, but everyone that understood the tremendous opportunity supported me 100%.

I got to Indianapolis and my job was to prepare and carry equipment, collect and wash uniforms, pick up players and staff from the airport, and prepare the gym for the players and coaches to practice. That carried over to DC. When we got to Mexico, that was still my role, but I also became an extra bench coach to help with stats and what not to help us win a gold medal.

When people asked "Why would you do that, you've won all these state championships and awards and now you're basically a manager... I wouldn't do that". I told them that summer was such a positive impact for me and, again, the collateral "damage" that came from those three months was life-changing for so many others. I loved every moment of traveling the country and world, working whatever job USA Basketball gave me and meeting so many new people from all walks of life. I felt like I was given an opportunity to build bridges with all of my previous basketball experiences.

One bridge that was built came in Indianapolis. I was on the USA Basketball coaching staff in 2013 and 2014 with Sue Phillips. She was the head coach again in 2021 and though I was in a different role, she would always come over and ask what I am seeing and what advice I had. We had two point guards go down and she asked me who I think could help fill that role. I told her that I think Olivia Olson, a guard from Minnesota, has the ability to move from a shooting guard / wing player to run the point in a pinch. I had earlier told others on the supportive staff that I thought Olivia was my pick for someone who would make a big impact on that team.

When we won the gold medal in Mexico everyone was celebrating. I pulled Olivia to the side and told her "I wanted to wait until we were done, but I told the staff that you were going to be the one who would help us win gold". I felt like she was willing to play wherever, whenever, even if it was inconvenient for her because she wanted to win. When the point guards went down, that premonition came to fruition.

When I got home, I had a skill session with one of my incoming freshman high school players, Adelaide Jernigan. Adelaide wanted to know all about the trips and I told her that I hoped someday she could meet Olivia as I thought those two were similar in personality. Fast forward to 2022 and Adelaide's is trying out for the U17 National Team. Near the end of trials, she introduced herself to Olivia because she had heard about her a year ago and soon they became best of friends who basically, from what I understand, talk almost every day.

If I don't work the summer before for USA Basketball, do the two ever meet or become the friends they are today?

The "inconvenience" of being away from everyone in 2021 built so many bridges nationally and globally and, in this one case, built a relationship between two teenagers that maybe would have never met.

Yes, to the question of "Why would you do that job" in 2021 and what else I did to prepare the practice sites for the U16 team. I was also asked to turn high school gyms into international courts. What does that mean? Yep, I had to tape an international three point line everywhere we practiced. High school courts don't have that line, so in order for the U16 team to practice correctly, that three point line had to be added. There was no room for error here as we are preparing the team for international competition. My mind went back to that October Saturday in 1995 and the patience and accuracy that was required to place the three point line in the auxiliary gym; I transferred that to 2021.

"Can I tape a floor" was one of the questions brought up when the national director was searching for someone to help in the summer of 2021.

That perceived inconvenience in 1995 was really an opportunity in disguise. Every single day we are presented with inconveniences, you never know how a choice on one of those inconveniences can change others lives for the better... including yours.

Coach West was always teaching me things. Directly, we were putting that line on the court, but indirectly, he too was giving his time to teach me how to take advantage of inconvenience. He could have said "I don't have the time for you to work on the locker room, I need to go hime". He could have not invited me to lunch. He could not have stayed with me while placing the line on the floor. He was leading by example, not just with words. His inconvenience was an investment in my future... Investment in others will be next Tuesday's topic.

Yours for Better Basketball Always,

Brian Robinson