viernes, 30 de diciembre de 2016

2016 - 12 Books

Twelve of the books I’ve read and liked during the year. I thought maybe you could be interested and also might like to make some suggestions with your favorite reads. I add one quote of each to give you a quick flash about the book, even if there is much more inside them, of course.


La metamorfosis ; Martí Perarnau: “Lo que hizo el entrenador fue simplemente, en realidad, crear las condiciones para que estos futbolistas expresaran sin limitación dichas cualidades… esta es una de las mayores virtudes que debe poseer un líder técnico: facilitar y promover la expansión del talento almacenado por sus hombres, que a menudo permanece en compartimentos escondidos”

Herr Pep ; Martí Perarnau: “Un equipo es algo vivo, que crece, se desarrolla, sufre desgracias e inconvenientes, los supera, crea expectativas, mejora en unos ámbitos, empeora en otros y, en resumen, evoluciona.”

La vida por el fútbol ; Román Iucht: "Uno vive y necesita jerarquizar virtudes, decir éstas son las virtudes que rescato en los demás y quisiera para mí, que respeto, que valoro.”

Los 11 caminos al gol ; Eduardo Rojas: "Un buen conductor se forja en la derrota, cuando sus valores y su estilo generan respeto y credibilidad incluso en la adversidad. Creo que el líder ve en ese momento la capacidad de conducir. No me quieras porque gané, necesito que me quieras para ganar. Quien es querido se siente más seguro y su sensación de fortaleza para enfrentar la tarea es superior. Tengo muy claro que uno tiene que querer sinceramente a quien conduce, y si no lo quiere naturalmente, tiene que aprender a quererlo. Una muestra de nuestra debilidad es excluir. Cuando no aguanté a los jugadores, invariablemente me fue mal. Si no los quiero, no hay proyecto posible.”

The power of negative thinking ; Bob Knight & Bob Hammel: "Improvement, especially toward perfection, comes only if the practice is demanding, well-thought-out, and constructive, by a coach who realizes that absolute perfection is unattainable—but is always the objective."

A season on the brink ; John Feinstein: "Practice had not gone well; after three straight good practices, the team had been sluggish. Intellectually, Knight knew this was inevitable. Emotionally, it drove him to the brink of complete hysteria.”

More than a game ; Phil Jackson & Charley Rosen: "When it comes to basketball, Tex has God’s conscience.”

Leading ; Alex Ferguson & Michael Moritz: "Watching others, listening to their advice and reading about people are three of the best things I ever did.

Showboat ; Roland Lazenby: "Tex couldn’t tell an untruth if his life depended on it. So I think that’s what people like Michael and Kobe love about Tex. They welcome coaching. They welcome honest criticism.”

Michael Jordan, The Life ; Roland Lazenby: "Rather than miss games, Jordan had to sit out his favorite time with the team. “I have always liked practice,” he said, “and I hate to miss it. It’s like taking a math class. When you miss that one day, you feel like you missed a lot. You take extra work to make up for that one day. I’ve always been a practice player. I believe in it.”

Open ; Andre Agassi: "I can’t imagine all these people trying to be like Andre Agassi, since I don’t want to be Andre Agassi.”

What I talk about when I talk about running ; Haruki Murakami: “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."

miércoles, 28 de diciembre de 2016

Efficiency: Petteri Koponen

I’m not a big fan of the plus - minus stats specially when it comes to individual performances, I think there are many players involved in whatever happens on the court and that number can lead to misunderstandings. 

Anyway in the last Baskonia - FCB we saw a chain of actions that show the value of one of the great players in our basketball, Petteri Koponen. In the beginning of the third quarter, five consecutive possessions, creating a high value for his team on both sides of the court, scoring five points himself and creating another four for Ante Tomic, plus stealing one ball on defense.


Defense, scoring, decision making, play making, to get his team going in less than four minutes.


Also, I’d like to point out one of the offensive situations FCB use during this stretch, which we can see in the video, with a big man posting playing at the elbow for a hand off situation. In this example is precisely Koponen the player who ends up executing the shot coming off Tomic's pass. 


Using a shooter and getting advantages of small defensive mistakes to get easy looks for an elite shooter, FCB's playbook has really interesting options.