The Olympics from a Coach's Point of View

I’ve decided to spend a second newsletter edition talking about the Olympics. What a great spectacle it was with so many memorable performances. My focus the last few days was not surprisingly on the mens and women's basketball semi finals and finals…all four games were tension filled and exciting games with fortunately the USA teams winning. There was amazing skill on display and clearly the world is catching up to the US when it comes to basketball.

Both of our basketball teams were heavily favored to win the tournament going in and the pressure to not only win but win big was high. Each team had 12 of the best players in the world and there was some controversy going in on whether other players (like Caitlin Clark) should have been on the team. I will be honest and say if I had put the women’s team together, Caitlin would have been on the team as not only her play but her notoriety and status would have brought even more world wide atention to the women’s game and grown it even more. But, I totally understand the decision to keep her off the team and look forward to seeing her at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles!

Once the tournament started, there were many questions that came up about why a certain player didn’t play, why others played too much, etc. From my view, it appeared the players didn’t have issues with playing time and supported each other with the clear view that winning the gold medal is what mattered. Based on the social media I saw, fans were not as considerate….

Which leads me to focus of this newsletter: the coaches…. As someone who spent a lot of time worrying about who was on a roster and who should be playing on a team, I understand as well as anyone the pressure Steve Kerr, men’s coach, and Cheryl Reeves, women’s coach, were under. Clearly they were in a no win situation-here’s why:

• Both teams had a very short time to practice together and become a “team” before the Olympics. All of the other teams had been together for much longer periods of time and roles were well defined.

• Playing 12 players a fairly equal amount in close games isn’t possible…there are always going to be some players left out of the rotation.

• Each of the players on the team has his/her own set of fans who undoubtedly feel like their player should be getting more time or be a bigger focus of the team.

• The US teams were the huge favorite in every game and were clearly every opponent’s biggest game of the tournament.

Obviously the players were under a lot of pressure, but I would say the coaches were under even more pressure. They undoubtedly knew this was their one chance to coach the national team and a loss would put their names in rare company of USA basketball and they clearly would not get another chance to coach at the Olympics. It didn’t matter what moves they made, criticism was bound to come. In today’s social media world where everyone is a critic, it is easy to be a target and get overwhelmed by public opinion. Hopefully they turned off any social media during the Olympics! Unless you have been “in the arena” and part of the process of putting teams together and coaching, I would hope people would assume best intentions and let coaches coach, players play, and officials officiate.

These are important reminders as high school sports practices start today. For the first time in “a long time”, I will not be coaching a fall sport and will be cheering from the stands. I hope as you follow your team, whether as a parent of a player or just a fan of a team, you understand the difficulty of coaching and have empathy for what they are going through in putting teams together and winning games. As a fan, if you are always questioning coaches decisions without knowing the full story of what is going on, you will make the situation worse, especially if your child is part of a team and you complain directly to him/her about the coach. Never is that a good situation.

So when you attend a sporting event this year or even watch it on TV, enjoy the event…the outcome is not life and death…and know how much time, effort, and commitment each coach and player is putting in. They aren’t perfect and will make mistakes and in almost all cases are doing their very best. If you truly feel like you can do a better job, please get your coaching endorsement and help out your school as I’m certain there are openings you can fulfill! In my new role as a coaching mentor, I will be glad to support your work! 😀 

Have a great week and best wishes to all of the players and coaches getting their seasons started today!

Coach K