#170: Coach Phil Jackson: The value of a system

What does it mean to “have a system?” Why is it critical to build from the ground up?

1.        Having a system is not unique to basketball. It applies to most all sports (e.g., rowing). “It transcends basketball, no doubt about it."

2.        How Tex Winter used a system successfully at Kansas State and eventually brought it into the NBA.

3.        "The system is important — but you have to be really patient. There are certain things about the system that require bonding of the players.”

4.        "Systems are one of the necessary items, because it brings people together and gives direction... it’s not about you… it’s about the system.” (e.g., evaluation and critique can be de-personalized — so can successes)

5.        "You need to have a system that you believe in.”

6.        Bill Fitch.

7.        “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. But you can take a system apart and teach parts of the system. And the skills and the drills that we would run brought all of those things into play. They were all connected.”

8.        "Everything has to be simplistic enough that it can be taught…And player must know that they are not going to disrupt everything just by making a mistake.”

9.        Some principles of a sound offense. It’s a full court game played from end to end. You need to play with speed but still under control. Spacing is one of the most important things. Offense should incorporate the skills of all players — shooters, passers, rebounders, screeners, etc. (avoid baseline drive — one of the only “don’ts”). Move the ball after two beats. Penetrate the defense. Practice drills were set up around all of these things.

10.  Building up from the ground. Show the system, what happens in the system. And then take it apart and teach the parts. 

11.  Peer pressure in getting buy-in to the system. Veterans who understand it. Keep the standard. The standard is the key. The coach must uphold the standard.

12.  The Celtics had only six plays for many years and kept winning. The system endures as individuals come and go. Sustainability. The Bulls second three-peat only included two of the same players as from the first three-peat.

13.  Getting players that fit your system. Recruiting, assessment. AAU and college games are “raw energy.” Hard to see who has poise and understands the game. The system requires deeper skillset. Steve Kerr. He was a great fit for the system.

14.  The system provides a clear foundation and direction that sets basis for spontaneity. Coach’s illustration (Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner Mind). “We have a certain structure that we use. But inside that structure there’s a freedom of movement and opportunity to do things that are spontaneous.”

15.  “The offense was not built for Kobe or Michael Jordan. They don’t need an offense. The team needs an offense. The team needs to have that structure that is defining for them. So that they have a standard to live by. Something that you can mark up against. Something that you can teach, if you are a veteran, to younger players that are coming in that gives you a certain sense of participation. There’s ultimately an esprit de corps that comes from that. There’s a certain unity in group that comes from having to go through that exercise of doing maybe mundane parts over and over again.” 

16.  Doing something at least seven times for neuron forming and muscle memory to occur. Golf in the Kingdom. "The inner self." It’s not a thought process. You don’t have to think it out. Your body knows what to do.” 

17.  “You’re not thinking alone. You’re thinking together. It’s a team thought.” Using meditation and mindfulness with the team. “One mind, one breath.” That’s what we want to play with: one mind. There’s a higher mind. That mind is the system.”

18.  Freedom through discipline. “Have a sense, what are the parameters, and then inside those parameters you have freedom for spontaneity and creativity.”