Dale Brown On Coaching — We Owe Them Our Best

Former LSU coach Dale Brown, right, was greeted by John Calipari when LSU and UK played last season. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Former LSU coach Dale Brown has always been not only one of my favorite coaches but one of my favorite people. I love his passion for basketball but also his passion for helping others, even when that meant butting heads with the NCAA.

Brown recently shared this message he wrote about recruiting and the impact a coach should want to have on athletes and why he wanted to coach.

Enjoy these words of wisdom from Dale Brown:

They come in every variety.  Some swagger to hide their fears.  Some are full of hesitation and their self-doubt is written in their every gesture.  Some are loud and their speech says the world is their turf, just for them.  You can barely hear some, suddenly they seem limited to a whisper.  Some wear the newest fashions, the “in” attire, and some come in tatters with busted tennis shoes.  Some are white and some are black.  

Some are short and some are tall.  They all have one thing in common, they can play basketball and we went and got them.  We cajoled and promised.  We painted bright dreams.  We sat in their homes and the gyms for hours.

We talked and talked, wrote letter after letter, and called them on the telephone time and time again.  Getting them—that is what recruiting was all about.  Getting them.

Suddenly, like Captain Marvel after a “Shazam,” there they are in our midst and they are ours.  They are ours to improve and perfect their skills.  We will try to make them faster, more accurate, more attuned to every aspect of the game we coach.  We will succeed with some and fail with some.  Some will go on to the good life and some will fall by life’s wayside and become old men with busted dreams.

So, is that it?  Is that our obligation to them?  Is that what this calling of coaching is all about?  I think not.  I believe that those parents who send us their most precious possessions, their hopes for the future, their tomorrows, and the kids themselves are due a lot more from those of us who dedicate ourselves to this profession.  

We owe them a vision of life that goes beyond the basketball court.  We owe them a sense of right and wrong and that the wrong path has consequences.  We must teach them that there is not a law of nature that the end always justifies the means.  More wrong has been committed against humanity with that flawed philosophy than perhaps any other. We must show them the dignity within themselves and, equally important, to respect the dignity of others.  

We must teach them that their word is sacred, that what they say must be true otherwise they are only shells of men.  We must teach them that the education they receive in the classroom is invaluable and a far better accomplishment than playing basketball.  We must broaden their vision of the world so that their lives are not just focused on basketball.

Time after time we must say goodbye to these young men entrusted in our care and as they go on in life we must ask ourselves “What have we done for them?”  “Are they better or worse?”  “Are they more than when we got them or less?”  

They are living records of our own failures and successes.  Coaching should be about these young men’s lives and steering their lives in the right direction.  The legendary coach John Wooden said, “No written word, no spoken plea, no books can teach our youth what they should be.  It is what the teachers are themselves.”  

The word coach was used back in the 1500’s in England.  A coach was a horse drawn carriage used to transport a person of importance from where he or she is to where he or she wants to be, could be, needs to be, or ought to be going.  That is exactly what a real coach should be doing.  It isn’t who you coach or where you coach but why you coach.