Börjar skymta en OAS i öknen

Längesen man hittade tangentbordet och var aktiv här på sidan, men har varken funnits intresse eller ork från min sida att skriva nåt.
Man kan ju hoppas att detta blir bra då :-)


Efter 22år som coach i denna underbara sport varav 4 år i Danmark (Hörsholm) via en kort sejour i Norge, så hamnade jag i Skåneklubben Malbas. Malbas har under flera år byggt upp en stark herr/killsida och det kändes mest rätt att erbjuda mina tjänster i en klubb med ambitioner.

Blev erbjuden intressanta lag och kom igång om än sent, så efter en kort paus så var man igång igen på golvet. Tränar bla ett killag med spelare födda 2001 och för deras basketframtid och alla andra spelare i SKÅNE med ambitioner så kom till slut nyheten att MALBAS valde att söka till Basketligan. UNDERBART!
 
Hur skall man motivera spelare om de inte kan se "de bästa" i landet lira LIVE. NBA och Euroleague i all ära, men de allra allra flest kommer aldrig vara i närheten av dessa ligor. Inte fel med drömmar, men måste också finnas rimliga trappsteg att ta som spelare.

LIGAN till säsongen 2015/2016 vill ju vara fantastiskt, men än är man inte där med båda fötterna. Sportsligt sett så är klubben i LIGAN, men nu fattas bara riktigt god korv på matcherna!?

Nope korven "är najs", men nu skall det ekonomiska på plats och hur är intresset egentligen i SKÅNE?

Finns en hel del basketfolk ute i näringslivet på chefspositioner, som har egna företag men är man villig att stoppa in lite "deg" för att Malbas skall kunna baka bröd?

Kan basketSKÅNE sluta upp under ett basketligalag på herrsidan, som det delvis har blivit på damsidan med Eos damligalag?

Förstår ALLA i skåne vikten av att ha ett ligalag på herr & damsidan eller vill man bara leka i sin egen klubb och jaga pokaler för sitt klubbemblem eller vill VI mer än så?

Vill vi skapa ligaspelare, collegespelare, proffs spelare en framtid för skånska spelare att leva på sin idrott på hemmaplan?

Kan klubbar känna stolthet i att skicka vidare spelare till ligalagen i SKÅNE?

Konceptet HETA SKÅNE var inte illa tänkt förutom namnet och genomförandet, men i alla fall för denna basketidioten så måste ALLA med på nåt hörn i Malbas ligasatsning för att vi skall kunna göra OASEN större i basketöknen.

Jag kan tillsammans med många andra duktiga coacher lära kidsen spela basket, men kanske du har "degen" eller lite tid över, så att vi kan sluta stirra på recept och börja baka!?

Eller kanske du kan bidra med nåt annat?

Vi borde ALLA bidra med allt vi kan "deg" eller inte så kan vi alla bidra med något inte minst att komma på matcherna.

RIP Dean Smith

RIP Coach Dean Smith.

A man that dedicated his life to basketball and helped to shape the G.O.A.T of basketball in Michael Jordan​ . We have lots to be grateful to a basketball/leadeership/teaching brain like Dean Smith was. For me he gave me one thing i particular. Many years ago I bought one of his books where he explained coming to North Carolina and at that time the university was all about fotball and basketball was not highly thought of. The had been banned from TV games for a couple of years, so recruiting wasn`t the easiest the first years.

What Dean did was no cry about, he tried to find solutions. Basketball program needed money, so for example he had them put in special comfortable chairs for sponsors.

He had the locker room re-designed so it would look more like a PRO locker room to make recruitment easier and his reasoning was. The LR is the first thing a player sees everyday and the last thing the see. He tried simply solutions to promote his baskeball program and it eventually became one of the powerhouses in college basketball.

With this I learned it is all right to complain, but make sure you do all you can o find a solution so that your team, club and especially your players can be succesfull.  Your job as a coach is not just to coach the players on the court.
You need to create a learning/suiting enviroment so they can develop and become winners in basketball and life.

Thank you!

One door closes and another opens

Im not gonna into details but when last season was ending I was set to continue in Denmark, but not everybody wanted that. I choose to move back to Lund and was about  to take a year of from basketball and study. With "off from basketball" I mean just coach one team in a local club.

 Then a phone call changed everything and all of sudden I was in Bergen (Norway) visiting one of Norways powerhouses in basketball a club called Gimle. I was amazed by the city and its location which must be one of earth most beautiful places, but i was also amazed about the possibilities that the club have that is undeveloped.
 I met some great people during my 2 days stay in Bergen and for me it was a NO BRAINER really.

Some days later we agreed on me coaching their mens and womens teams that both play in the highest league in Norway and finished 1st and 2nd last season. I will also have kind of club coordinator role to help the whole club develop and progress to what it has potential to be.

Im right now waiting for a apartment, so I can move to Bergen and begin my job in Gimle basketball Club.

Im ready, lets work hard and smart! 

Take a look at some pictures from Bergen and then tell me thats a place you dont want to visit :-)

Pictures here!

The way its suppose to be

This weekend I had many of my players on nationalteam tryouts so we cancelled practise and I myself took a trip to Huskvarna and a basketball weekend.
The coperatiing clubs in that area of sweden arranged a splendid final four arrangement of high class for Women & Men U17 &U19.

Its was a pure joy to see this beeing arranged for the future of swedish basketball and I do believe all players felt very special this weekend in may.

The people behind this FINAL FOUR in Huskvarna has just made a couple of players fall in love more with the game. Pro arrangement around the games, you could even watch games LIVE from the other gym in the other gym.

All games was broadcasted on stream and LIVE stats and social media activities all weekend.

The had made a program for the weekend that you had to pay for which I think is about time that somethings cost money around youth championships.

They even arranged a banquet on saturday evening for all players and coaches. Its pretty unusal in the nordics but very common in other basketball countries. LOVE IT!

Coaches got a special made mug, so they could get free coffee all weekend.
(yeah coaches need coffee since they sleep very little)

Many things to celebrate this weekend for. It had some nice games and on the final day they even had two elder gentleman in their fine clothes and even with a black tie sweeping the floors.
Not some kid 12 years old sitting like usual a great idea and very loved by all.

Many peoople behind it and team Aulander & Enbom directing the plays behind the scenes and Aulander even was speaker for some games dropping classics like "pengar" money when shoots was made, to "kust till kust" coast to coast and more.

NT coaches was there to hand out awards to players, just super.

But only one thing was in my eyes negative and on the finals a couple of minutes into the first final they stopped the crowd from using loud horns.....Who likes them, well not me, BUT it creates such a atmosphere for the players and as long as they dont sit and blow the horns directly into peoples ears, well guess what its basketball.

People are there for the players to support them in the way they can...most scandinavians need something to make noise, they had horns to make noise. A few didnt like how loud the sounded and simsalabim it gets stopped.

Have you ever been to a game outside the nordics?
Well its not like watching pool or bowling.........

I asked about it and one voulenteer said the federation said it was OK to stop them

I`m sorry but this made me mad.....

But the whole weekend was super and gets the highest grades from me at least.
Hope they get this 17 & U19 for a couple of years in a row now, why change when its this good.

Still in love - thank you Dr J.Naismith

1891 Naismith invinted what we know as basketball of course it was played earlier like I think it was maya indians that played something similar with the head of the beaten tribe member cut of after winning the battle.

But I like Naismith version better.......

Directly when I found basketball as a youth I knew that this was me. First as a player and for the last 22 years as a coach. I fell in love with basketball and now as this season comes to a end I can look back and smile once again.

Looking towards the future is also positive and one is exctited of what  the future will bring for a basketball addictive Swede living in Denmark.
I know what I want, but its not up to me so we will see what time will bring me.

Looking back at this season I will always remember basketball as my savior. My father passed away in February and thank God I have basketball or I cant even guess where I would find strength to carry on. But knowing that I have like 28 players waiting for me to coach them every week and all the headache and joy they bring helps you escape reality and when you are ready to face reality they ares till there willing to work their asses of and listen to your wise (hopefully) words practise after practise and week after week.

The LOVE you get back as a coach is what keeps you going year after year. Its not the medals, the trophies its the humans you coach, to see them develop, to see them grow and find out who they are is coaching. All the systems in the world cant help you if you dont have foundamentally sound ground to stand on. I believe that I make a difference and to see former players succeed in whatever they are doing even if its not basketball is to me the real trophies. I cant put them in the cluboffice or in the closet, but in my mind I collect them all.

This season one of my former players (Alexander AKA Gorski) signed for NCAA D1 Wyoming Cowboys after spending a year at prep school Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas. I have never ever been so nervous in life as for him getting his signature in place and it was a lot of years ago I coached him. But i know I made a difference and i know his goals with basketball, so even if my girls won the nordic championships for U16 teams this season its still second to him signing for a D1 school.

Many propably think I`m crazy in thinking so, but to me coaching is so much more than the game its about life.

But the way my girls won the U16 Nordic club championships has its own chapter
Take a look at this, we are down 2points after a 3 min overtime and my PG Caroline Hyldahl decides to knock down a 3 from downtown with 0 time left.
(Even benchplayers from the other team are on court celebrating)
Click on the picture to see the last seconds of the final

When preparing for something.....

....it doesn`t always goes as planned and it doesn`t matter how many times you been there as a coach it still hits you like a rock in the head.

It gives you headache and now brain begins trying to find solutions to compensate for things that didn´t go as planned. What I`m a talking about well for example, player or players gets sick, injured something happens that effects your prepairation for the big game, the tournament.

I had one of these "nightmaries" last week. We started practising again in the new year and I knew we would have one player still away on vacation. This is 6 days before the danish cup final, well had a double practise planned (11 players in team in total) 1 away on trip, that leaves 10 players, of course one gets sick - 9 left.

First practise one cant continue because of his fot is giving him problems - 8 left

Practise the next day 1 more player steps of - 7 left, one day off and practise again one player has to sit out.
Practise the next day (last practise before cup final) 10 players dressed, but 1 cant practise - 9 left

10minutes left of practise one of the teams best players looses his balance and of course sprains his ankle. The day before a get message from one of the injures players whom have moved pretty far away from where he used to live, he feels it cant work so he chooses to stop playing.

Gameday:
I was thinking what more can go wrong, but actually trains where in time and we had no problems at all. The player that sprained his ankle said he wanted to try his foot on the warmups. Halfway into the warmups he comes and says coach it cant be done. Stupid me of course I had some hope of him playing, but reality hit me hard there in the gym.

We actually started the game really nice in defense and played as I see it creative offense, but and there is always a but :-) As i wrote we played really nice "D" and we made them take bad shoots, but we didn`t block out at all. We are a very small team and they are big, so they punished us again and again on the boards.

Blocking out has to be done in some way or...!

Tried everyhting to get them to block out, but it was like the one thing just had disapeared from their skillset.
Very frustrating to watch and that continued for the most part of the game. But due to we played well in offense we where still in the game at halftime -7points. If we start blocking out its our game thats how I felt and what we agreed on.....but words, and answering "YES" "yes coach" "lets do it" aint the blocking out no players and sadly we continued to be spectators in rebounding situations. They had a 10p lead for most of the second half and I felt we need 2-3 stops and we can turn this around.

We had some moments where we came back really strong, but theey stoped our "runs" just in time. They won with 18 points and the killed us at the boards. They most have had 40p+ of second chance or third and that we actually where in the game for the most part anyway is something positive at least.

After that prepairation what could I exspect?
Well, if we forget about the rebounding issue me guys played their hearts out, we just forgot about one major important thing in basketball called REBOUNDING and I think after this game they will never forget again cause who wants silver instead of gold?!

Another year bites the dust - Welcome 2014

Well sorry for those who follow my blog I have really been out of fuel, energy to write in a long time.
Just to many things bouncing around that takes up most of the time and energy. Many of them aint something I wanna share to the world, so then I rather not write some bullshit blogs just because I have to, I wanna write because I want to not like a obligation. I write for me and if somebody finds that interesting I`m glad for that of course.

2013 has been a rollercoaster ride for me in many ways and my biggest joy comes from basketball, but my biggest disapointments also comes from basketball this year. I cant go in to details, maybe in a couple of years or my life long dream to write a book. Only time will tell what comes first :-)

So I´m gonna keep it as positive as possible in this "2013 end of the year" blog.
I go to work every week in a grocery shop not because I want to, not because I think its the greatest job in the world, not because of the money (believe me). I go to handle about 450 customers in 8hours per day because, then I can go to basketball at night and my bills are paid.

Going on 20+ years as a coach I still LOVE THIS GAME more than almost anything.
I know thats stupid but that how I feel and that hasn`t changed at all.

I`m right now coaching boys born 1998 and girls born 1998 and end of last season and the start of this season they have really made a old coach happy and proud as a rooster.
Season 2012/2013 ended with me having a total of 8 girls in the national teams and 3 of the boys in the Dansh national teams, both teams where invited to to the Nordic champioships in Sodertalje. Bosy team was out for redemption after a very bad Nordics championship in 2012 where the finished last 14/14 teams and it wasn`t loosing that was the issue, we played really bad and showed bad attitude.
A nervous wait and finally the news we where invited again and this time we where ready mentally and played some really nice games and reached our goal which was top 8 as we finished on 8th place. But we where 10points from playing for 1-4, so great character and we showed us worthy the invite.

Girls team was invited for the first time ever and they made a impact their first year finishing in 3rd place after loosing the semifinal against the winners Uppsala. After the semifinal I can still clearly remember the faces and body language my girls showed in the locker room. They where waiting for me to yell, critize them, to be mad you name it.
They looked scared for the first ever since I started with them.  Of course its never fun to loose and to loose a semifinal can hurt a lot even for a veteran like me.
After a while their body language and faces changed when they realized that their idiot for a coach was actually so proud of them and what they have achived that he almost cried in that lockeroom, not because of loosing because for their character, their development and their achievement in their first nordic championship ever.

A memory for life.....

During the years as a coach some players always makes a bigger impact in your life than others and most of the time its because of the time, passion and will they showed when you coached them. Those players are hard not to continue to follow after you stopped coaching them since you wanna know how they are doing with their bball dreams.

This year to former players of mine took huge steps in following their dreams and its a strange feeling to be so proud and happy for other people, but I know how much it means to them and that why I spent so so so many hours in the gym with them back in the day, cause they where for real and not only talkers the wanted to work for their dreams.

One of them landed a spot on a top 10 high school in producing college talent in the USA another after having a hard time deciding if he was gong to europe or college or wait for better offers from better colleges finally made up his mind and landed a spot on a prep squad in th USA from which he has a much better opertunities to find a really god college.

Alexander & Albert you are both two of my biggest memories from 2013, thank you for working hard and I really hope you both get what you deserve.

Dreams can become real.....


I love being right I pretty open what I think about most things and I have no problem in saying my thoughts on different things.
My father said you are so stubborn! And I answered is it really being stubborn when I`m always right? Should I answer incorrect, or not tell the truth so I`m not stubborn? :-)

Of course you should read this with a smile, but who doesn`t love beeing right?

In 2010 a started with my boys team born 1998 and after like 2 weeks the players asked "who do you thing will dunk first in our team?" I thought about for like 2 seconds and answered Oscar who where and still is the teams starting point guard. They looked amazed and came back with questions directly and suggested 2 other players on the team that most of the boys thought would dunk long before Oscar. Well this season Oscar is dunking and .....well just Oscar. I said last season that he would dunk before february 2014 and now its december 2013, so JACKPOT, BiNGO whatever I was right and I love it.

One of the greates things in 2013 was of course to follow swedish womens nationalteams success in the Euros and because basketball aint so big in Sweden, most people dont understand how huge their achievement really was, my hat`s off to you ladies you made a impact in a international level like our mens team never can do.

At the end of last season I had 8 girls and 3 boys in NT squads and for like a week ago U16 NT`s announced their 24 player rosters for 2014 summer Euros (they will cut more players in 2014)

But a write this with a smile since of those 24 U16 girl players I right now have 11 girls in that squad from my team. And in boys 24 NT roster I have 3 boys from my team.

I`m first of all glad for the players, second of very happy for the club that we are developing talent for the NT`s which I think is most important thing next to making more people love basketball in general. And for myself I`m so so proud that words cant describe how I feel so 2013 please go to bench so I can put in 2014 and scream GAMETIME!

A great man left us in 2013 and yes a troubled past, but I truly think he made up for that in most of his lifetime.



Nelson Mandela RIP