Motivation

Athletes are motivated by many different things. Competition, pride, anger, and money to name a few. As a coach or general manager the hard thing is to find that motivating factor.

Certain players on the team would be motivated by a light verbal jabbing of their poor performance to do better the next game. For example, I might say to someone after a poor performance, “Hey rough game were you drinking before you came here,” or “Wow that was some awful shooting why don’t you get your eyes checked out this week, no, no here [hand them money] go to Lenscrafters its on me.

Some players answer to verbal threats. I know in the past myself or coach J.W. may have said to a player something like, “You better step it up if you want to see your grandmother again.” Luckily if has never gotten to that point.

Yet still these strategies might discourage certain players. Over the last few weeks our big man play has improved, and I believe it to be due to motivation of competition. J.P. is not the type of person to be motivated by verbal lashings. It actually stumped me on how I could motivate him on the court. This was until about 3 weeks ago.

I was hanging out with a friend of mine, Silky. Silky has his own business and was sharing with me some of his business predicaments, getting his money on time, developing arthritis in the back side of his hand, providing GPS for his employees who are constantly on the street. He then told me, “You know what motivates my [fine young women]?” “The one who is out there not earning what she should, if she ain’t motivated by the hand then you get another one just like her. She sees this new girl come in trying to take her place and all of a sudden the [farming tool] is out there earning like A-Rod.”0A

Then it hit me. What J.P. needed to earn, I mean play to the level that he’s capable of is some competition. When James joined the team two weeks ago, J.P. played a great game and followed it up with another solid performance last week. It was as if a light bulb went off in his head and he realized that someone could potentially take his place. Consciously or subconsciously I think this happened in some regard and he has done the things that team is asking of him, rebound and play defense. Now that is pimping.

J.D. #10