Real Players Don’t Say “Glass”

Last night, near the end of the first half of the Celtics thrilling 106-102 Game Five playoff victory over the Pistons, Kevin Garnett banked in a desperation three-pointer from straight out to beat the shot clock. The shot was replayed by ESPN numerous times. Lucky shot. Big three points. I’m pretty good at lip-reading KG and what he normally says is not reprintable here, but what he didn’t say after knocking in that shot was “glass”. Cuz he didn’t mean to bank it in. But you know what? Had he intended to bank in a shot (Tim Duncan anyone?) he would not say it then either. Real players don’t say “glass”.

In a previous post, “The Great Ones Use the Glass“, we tried to help players understand that shooting the ball off the backboard is an enormously worthwhile skill to develop. What we didn’t say was shoot the ball off the backboard and shout the word “glass” as if it was the first time you ever did it. Why, I mean, what an odd and totally insecure habit. Stop it now! The reason recreational level players shout glass when they put the ball off the board is they want to make sure that everyone knows it’s not a mistake. Lord. If your game up to that point hasn’t established that you are capable of shooting the ball with some clue as to how it’s gonna get in the hoop, then maybe you should be yelling “glass”. Or “I’m new at this game!”. Or “I’m pretty sure you think I’m not very good so let me try this gimmick of announcing what I am doing. Some day, when I grow up, I won’t have to do it”.

Bank it in. Run down court and play defense like you know that they know that you know exactly what to do and how to do it on the basketball court. 

The Impossible

At the Never Too Late Basketball camps and clinic, we work with recreational type basketball players. But just because they’re never going to be paid to play doesn’t mean we can’t give them pro moves. We work on dribble drop-step in the post; we drill spins and explosiveness off the between-the-legs dribble; we go up-and-under in the post; we go hard curling off screens and catch and shoot the moment the ball touches our hands. What we don’t work on is what-we-cannot-and-never-will-do. In other words, the impossible. 

We will not be working on this at the “Nov/Int Skills & Scrimmage Clinic” at Matignon HS in North Cambridge, MA this Thursday night:

So you don’t think this is a one time only Jason Maxiell deal: