Sometimes, it doesn’t take much at all. You get a scent of it in a motion, a reaction, a movement. It’s a look in a player’s eyes. It’s how they hold themselves in a particular situation. It’s something about them that was unexpected. But it’s unmistakable. You can’t substantiate it rationally, you just know that what you saw is real. We’re fortunate at our school, with the depth of talent we draw from on a yearly basis, to get a lot of practice at this. Seeing players, whether in a gym class, or in a tryout filled with 88 other players, do something that makes you pause, and tilt your head, saying “wait a minute…”, there’s something more there. And yet not there yet. It’s not potential, which can be a very dangerous thing to hold onto for a player. It’s more sure than that. It’s a promise that is unfulfilled. Yet. In whatever it is you see, you’re seeing past what currently is. It’s a vision of what will be. And yet it’s as solid a reality as anything could be. The only question is, how do get from where they are, to where they will be?
We’ve seen it over the years with different individual players. The clearest example in our program was Marial Shayok. As a gangly, freshman he took a beating his first few times on our court. And yet, there was something in the way he moved that gave us pause, raised a single eyebrow, and left us in awe. The path from that moment to when he heard his name called by the NBA Commissioner when he was drafted was not a linear path where everything fell into his lap. No, it was filled with pauses, steps backwards, and unforeseen obstacles. But likely that’s all part of it. Maybe each trial and setback on that path was needed to give him the tools to fulfill the vision we had of him. And it’s not that, that vision is final. Marial has continued to grow and evolve since that vision was realized four years ago, to now be an Olympian and integral piece for the world’s youngest country in the South Sudan Olympic hopes. But he’s far from the only one.
Marial was moved onto the varsity roster as a freshman. Very few players in our program ever have. But each one that has, has moved on to play beyond high school. The vision we see in those players comes to reality. There are many factors that go into those players realizing that vision, and many of those are beyond our control or influence. The question we have to continually ask ourselves is, what role do we have to fulfill to help them realize that future? What role do we have to play in their skill development, as well as their character formation to help them develop all of the tools they’ll need to get there? When will we have to hold their hand through things, and when will we have to let them fall? Sometimes, the falls are just as, if not more, important that the successes. It’s then that they learn that they can not only survive those moments, but come out better than they were before. And just as it should never be with a team, it’s not a matter of molding a player to some pre-fab form that matches our own skillset for development. It’s more like sculpting, where you chip away all of the extra rock that is holding them back from that final form.
It’s not just the great prospects that you have that vision for. It’s each player. That’s part of what makes tryouts so interesting. You get those short glimpses into the form players can take. They won’t all be professional players. Some will be extraordinary high school role players. Some will be leaders that hold the team together. And then you if you’re lucky you have a vision for how all those pieces will come together. How do the puzzle pieces form a singular, integrated, cohesive, flowing image? Just as it’s our job to question what role we play in forming a single player, it’s our job to understand what experiences those players together as a team need to realize that ultimate, final vision. In our program, we’ve had history-making success. And it wasn’t because we had some set mold that we followed that we simply poured the players into. It was because we realized the vision for each player and group of players had to be true and authentic to who they were. Players and teams are their best, not when we or they have a set image of who we want them to be. Rather, they are the best version of themselves when they dive into who they truly are. Over the years we have run different offenses and defenses, depending on what was true to each group of players. In that sense, you have to take your hands off the wheel a little and let them drive the bus, trusting that even if they get pulled over for speeding or have a few near misses, that they won’t get sideswiped. Because if the vision is true, all of that will go into them realizing that vision of their ultimate form.