Johnny's stubbornness made me a better basketball coach.
Johnny
The following spring, I was ready to start coaching my second group of basketball players. It is a cycle I repeated seven times in fourteen years of coaching. I gained greater respect for physical education teachers, the butt of many cruel jokes in the teaching profession. Instructing in an open classroom is a challenge unlike any other in education.
My second group of basketball players contained many talented young men on all three teams, A, B, and C. Among them was a tall player named Johnny. Due to his size, I had Johnny banging under the backboard to snag rebounds. He was very good at it. But over time, I noticed, after he threw an outlet pass to begin the fast break, he would hang back at the three point arc on the offensive end and call for the ball. Johnny was highly respected by his teammates, and they would often comply with his wishes and pass the ball back to him so he could launch a three-point shot. Sometimes he would hit the shot, but more often he would miss. This would often set up a fast break for the other team, who would invariably blow by a disconcerted Johnny after he launched another brick.
I let this go on for a few games before pulling Johnny aside during practice one day.
"Johnny," I said, "after you pull down the defensive rebound, I want you to position yourself under our backboard to get some offensive rebounds. I don't think three-pointers are a high percentage shot at this level of play."
"Okay," Johnny said, but he continued to hang at the three point line on offense.
This passive resistance prompted me to bench him repeatedly. I figured he would get the message eventually.
Johnny never did get the message. He refused to come out for the team when he was in eighth grade. I was adamant and continued to refuse permission for players wanting to shoot three-point baskets. Nobody else quit, but I learned from Johnny to loosen up a little bit and not to be so rigid. When the next group came in, not only were three-pointers allowed, but I scrapped our patterned offense altogether and relied on the fast break to generate points. Part of this was due to Johnny's stubbornness.