April Newsletter - Free Download & Kobe Bryant

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Many people may wonder what makes Kobe Bryant the best closer in the game. As with most superstars he has an unreal work ethic and desire to win. Need proof? Check out Kobe's pre-game ritual:

There are few things more important to Kobe Bryant before a game than his portable DVD player. It goes wherever he goes before tipoff. On the padded table in the trainer's room. On the floor for a pregame stretching routine. Perched in front of his locker. The Lakers' 10-time All-Star stares at his 10-inch screen, watching basketball clips of the players he'll be guarding. It is part of his longtime commitment to studying video, one of the foundations of a career still going strong.

The Lakers have had dozens of great players over the years, but according to the team's director of video services Chris Bodaken, "Hands down, he's the biggest video fiend we've ever had. I didn't know if it was possible to be more competitive than Magic was, but I think he might be. It carries over into his preparation, and this is part of that."

The Lakers' video staff goes "through an opponent's last few games and find key plays from the players Bryant will guard, presenting him with eight to 12 minutes of edited footage."
The goal is for Bryant to pick up tendencies of rival players. Have they added any new moves? Have they been aggressively driving to the basket or have they been satisfied to drift from the hoop and settle for outside jump shots?

Kobe's objective is "to find ways to take away comfort zones from opponents."

"It's a blueprint," said Bryant, a perrenial member of the NBA all-defensive team.

"So if something goes down, it's not something you haven't seen before. Everybody's got tendencies. If he scores 40 on Monday, he's going to try to do it on Tuesday. You've got to take him out of his spots. That's the key."

Says Patrick O'Keefe, another member of the Lakers' video staff:
"It's like a straight-A student who still goes to all the extra study sessions."

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You Had to be Better Than You Have Ever Been

Until I read this article, I didn't realize just how great Hall of Famer Bobby Orr was.An eight-time first-team NHL All-Star, Orr was voted the league's best defensive player eight times.In 1969-70, "Orr became the only player to sweep the league's top awards — MVP, defenseman, playoff MVP and scoring title — and capped it off by scoring the Stanley Cup -- winning goal over St. Louis in overtime."Despite his dominance on the ice, "Orr bristled at the attentions of superstardom." According to this article, during the 1974-75 season, "he scored 46 goals but probably gave away a half dozen more by insisting that teammates had deflected the puck in."One of Orr's former teammates says that Orr "brought others with him; he wanted them involved."

"That's what made him so different: It felt like a five-player stampede moving toward you—and at his pace. He pushed his teammates, [because] you're playing with the best player in the league and he's giving you the puck and you just can't mess it up. You had to be better than you'd ever been."

This is the same quality that Michael Jordan had, Kobe Bryant has, and LeBron James is improving upon. Time will tell how developed LeBron's leadership is when they meet a challenge in this year's playoffs. Thus far they haven't broke a sweat whereas Kobe's Lakers had to survive a game 7 already and a tough come from behind win last night against Denver and their star Carmelo Anthony.

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Phoenix Suns Offense - 8 pages
1974 Laker Playbook - 43 pages
Greg Poppovich Favorite Drills & Motion Offense
SOS Defensive System - 31 slides Powerpoint
NBA Pre-Draft Camp Notes
Utah Jazz Philosophy
Charlotte Bobcats Scouting Report of Utah Jazz
Chicago Bulls Training Camp
Detroit Pistons Training Camp
WNBA Indiana Fever - 2 Practice Plans
Boston Celtics Practice Plan
Larry Brown Myrtle Beach Clinic Notes
Jeff Van Gundy - Knicks Defensive Philosophy - 15 pages
Bullets Open Post Offense
Steve Nash Shooting
Golden State Warrior Out of Bounds Plays
NBA Eurolive Tour Notes
Kevin Eastman Individual Improvement Notes
Kevin Eastman - 26 Skill Development Drills
Hubie Brown Special Situations
Hubie Brown How to Win with Less Talent
Hubie Brown Playbook for Success
Eric Musselman - Motivation and Coaching
Mike Dunlap Defensive Philosophy

Defense is about Desire and Focus on Fundamentals

NBA head coach of the New Orleans Hornets Byron Scott reminded his team recently about the basics of defense and the importance of focusing on defensive fundamentals. "Defense is all about desire and wanting to do it. It has nothing to do with skill. So we've just got to get back to our defensive principles and understanding what we need to do on every play. We were trying to rely too much on our offense, trying to outscore people. There's going to be nights when we're not going to be able to make shots or throw it in the ocean. We've got to be able to rely on our defense a lot more.Right now, we're having a lot of trouble on the defensive end. Specifically, guarding guys off the dribble, number one, and protecting that paint, number two. The third thing is when we're getting beat, we're fouling too much. We've got to do a better job, maybe go back to the drawing board, think about some of the things on our defensive concepts that we talked about and get better at it.The focus on that end has to be better. As far as us understanding what our principles are, I think we understand them. We've just got to get back to doing them on a day-to-day basis. This is not the time to lose desire to play defense; this is the times we've got to pick it back up." Perhaps no one on this team understands the importance of this focus like Scott who played on NBA championship teams during his tenure on the LA Lakers.