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Living Trophies Zoom – Kevin Eastman

Coach Kevin Eastman

Relationships are important. You never know when an old relationship will come in or out of your life and play a critical role.

How do I become one of the people that doesn’t fall into the W

The W – waste this time or wait for it to break

2 Questions to ask every day

  1. Did I waste yesterday
  2. How will I feel if I waste today?

Daily reminders

1) Appreciation – make sure the people who help me

2) Empathy – 2 pairs of shoes (the one you wear – comfortable) (The player or the people you lead)

3) Others – in leadership, it is always about others first

Let’s all of us walk our talk – it’s uncomfortable for us too (this pandemic)

  • We tell our players all the time to be comfortable being uncomfortable
  • Time for us to live out our words
  • The medium has change but if our message was good before then the message should not change. Figure out a way to accomplish things in difficult circumstances.

Controllable Commitment List

3 parts

  1. Myself
  2. That’s all about me personally: attitude, energy, effort, reactions, choices, words
  3. Now more than ever in leadership positions, our words matter immensely
  4. My day (needs to fit you)
  5. My best buckets: if I can fill these 7 buckets I’m at my best
  6. Family bucket
  7. Work bucket
  8. Faith/spiritual bucket
  9. Exercise bucket
  10. Think time bucket (only allow silence, me, my thoughts, a pad, pen)
  11. Reading bucket
  12. Sleep bucket
  13. My job (needs to fit you)
  14. # of people I help
  15. Communication I have
  16. Content I create (work on how you can teach in fewer words – talk in bullets not paragraphs)
  17. The preparation I put in

Coach Eastman’s Journey

  1. It’s not only about networking
    1. Networking is just a number – how many people you meet
    1. Networking can easily turn into not working if you focus on meeting everyone
    1. You need to make the relationships strong – nurture them
    1. How do you build relationships:
      1. When around 1st time or 2 ask sparingly about things they like
      1. Once I know that answer I can use that to nurture the relationships
      1. I will send people things they like
      1. Relationships aren’t about give and get
      1. It’s give, give, give, give, give and potentially eventually receive (Goodness gods)
      1. Did not get in the NBA until 46 or 48 years old
  2. Be intentional
    1. What you do on purpose to fulfill your purpose
    1. There’s a difference between intentional and intention
    1. Intentional: front of mind, priority
    1. Intention: If I get to it?
  3. Know it all or learn it all?
  4. Seek and find mission
    1. On the journey to learn new things
    1. The separator is once you seek and find you have to “think and apply”
    1. Knowledge is not power, until you apply it. The application turns it into power
    1. Success leaves footprints: 3 F’s
      1. Find them, follow them, Fit them
  5. Big eyes, big ear, small mouth
    1. Watching coaches, learn from the best
    1. Who can you meet with? Whose brain can I pick
    1. I already know what I know, if all I know is what I know then I don’t know enough”
  6. Never pass up a basketball opportunity
    1. I don’t win an NBA Championship if I didn’t say “yes” when I was driving down the interstate and got a call to be a fill-in at a clinic
    1. Gives talk on skill development
    1. George Raveling was in the stands – gets Coach to work the Nike All-American Camp
    1. Gets hired by Nike to work out best players
    1. Gets asked to work out a HS team
    1. Doc Rivers son was on the team
    1. Doc hires him to be the skill development coach
  7. Win the challenge of the room
    1. Be the most prepared person in the room (know about the speakers)
    1. Be the best note taker in the room
    1. Be the best question asker in the room
    1. Be the best listener in that room
    1. Be the most respectful in that room
  8. Always have a pen and a notepad
    1. Sometimes you have the title of basketball coach and you never coach basketball
    1. You can still coach (do you coaching when guys get out of the drill or when practice is over)
    1. Took notes in Celtics practice, typed them up and gave them to Doc
  9. Be better than most at something in the game
    1. This is how you get noticed
  10. What’s my reputation out there?
    1. A good rep, a bad rep or no rep
    1. Bad rep or no rep don’t help you at all
    1. Went to clinics to meet new people and learn
    1. Be courteous / be respectful
    1. Workout to look the part
  11. Can separate yourself through “depth”
    1. The questions you ask
    1. The relationships you build
    1. The knowledge you possess
  12. Be authentic
  • 3 Sets you must master
  • Skill set (expertise),
  • mind set (energy, optimism),
  • reset (mistakes you make/how you react)
    • How do you treat failure? Devastation or education
    • Know it all or learn it all
    • Never waste a failure
  • 3-Dimensional look at success
  • Learn from the past
  • Produce in the present – be an all-star in your role: DeAndre Jordan
  • Prepare for the future – “be there, before you get there”: Ray Allen story
    • Ray Allen already took the big shots he made in games thousands of times on his own

What I learned in the NBA

  1. The power of relationship building
    1. When you’re coaching the best, you have to have a relationship
    1. You can’t drive them without that relationship
    1. What’s important:
      1. We cared what makes them talk
      1. What makes them listen
      1. Now you know what makes them tick
  2. The importance of truth
    1. The truth means 3 things
      1. Live it – actions match words – this gets buy-in – your players are watching
      1. Tell it
        1. Relationship & communications are about 2 things: Who & How
        1. There is so much more positivity in the NBA than negativity
        1. You can be demanding and not demeaning
      1. Take it
        1. Don’t run from the truth – it’s good for you – develops you
  3.  Have to get buy-in, this is how:
    1. You better know your stuff
    1. Trustworthiness
    1. Work ethic – players need to know you work
    1. Can’t be in it for yourself
  4. Two critical words: “Next”
    1. “Next”
      1. Next level thinking
      1. Next scouting report
    1. “Every”
      1. When we lost we talk about what we didn’t do
      1. You realize that every day counts when you coach
      1. They all add up to the results you get
  5. You want expectations
    1. That means your fans care
    1. That means people think you should be in the fight
    1. Don’t shy away from expectations

Questions:

Communication: how to improve it?

  • Questions to ask – Coach to player
    • “Other than your family, who in sports do you respect the most?”
    • “Tom Brady”
    • Read about Tom Brady all year and sent anything he read to the player
    • At some point every player asks “why did you send me that article”
    • Once they do that, I’m in. They just let me in the door with their curiosity.
  • Player to player
    • You can’t lead without listening
    • One way communication is not leadership

Decision making: how to improve it

  • Hesitation causes it: must find out what is causing the hesitation to fix it
  • Knowledge of the game: must improve understanding of guy’s game to improve him
    • Watch film on great players
    • Have discussions about why this guy is great
    • What did this guy do that made him great?
  • Drills: Put drills in to reinforce proper decision making
  • An assistant coach should never give up on a player
  • If he’s not listening to you pass him onto another assistant and let him take a crack at it
  • The HC decides when to give up on a player

How did your time as an AD help pull you?

  • Mike Rhoades was the HC at the time at RMC
  • Got an appreciation for what the coaches go through in all different sports
  • Learned from Rhoades: he was continually working on his craft
  • Helped me learn about leadership

Where you intentional in the formation of your “Power words” (From his book)

  • Started with “truth” and ended with “talent” out of 25 words
  • He was – those 2 words were the only ranked words out of the 25
  • Catch them doing something right
    • “truth” doesn’t mean negative, it can be positive too
    • “talent” every NBA team has it
    • Players with “talent” lose
    • NBA teams want “talented” players
    • The “E” and the “D” stand for extra dimensions
    • What are the extra dimensions?
      • Could be resiliency
      • Could be detail
      • Could be preparation
      • Could be the realization that failure is a learning opportunity

How to you network to build relationships so they aren’t solely about basketball?

  • Coffee meetings
  • Sending things they are interested in
  • I don’t force relationships
  • I give and if it’s supposed to be returned it will be
  • I’m not offended if people turn me down

How do you manage the thin line between resetting/moving on & making sure players know you care that the team has lost or failed?

  • “What I’ve learned in the past is that moving on is better than hanging on”
  • “What you don’t know is I watched the film 3 times last night”
  • “I never want to say something right after the game that I have to apologize for tomorrow”
  • Avg length of time of Doc Rivers post-game talk: maybe 47 seconds
  • “The good coaches never have to apologize the next day”
  • So much of this comes back to the “who” & “how”

The best way to get to their mind is through their heart

  • The stronger the relationship the harder you can coach a guy

Comparison is the thief of joy – is there an appropriate time to use comparison?

  • Yes, but it comes back to the “who”
  • Chris Paul story: “They say” booklet – i.e. “They say Tony Parker is better at finding open guys than Chris Paul”