You are not like everyone else

I kept thoose words with me all life, it was a sentence from my mother after I came home and acting up since i wanted Levis jeans like everyone else. I said everybody got LEVIS jeans and she answered you are not like everyone else and I truly think that was the start for me to go my OWN way.

Everything I have been taught in life, sports I anylized with - Is this me, do I stand for this? Is thsi really true?, What do I think about that? Everybody thinks it is like this, but what do I think?


Its a thing that have made me the coach I`m, not the coach that is like everyone else. My reasoning is that there is not only one truth in basketball teaching or playing. In everyway there commen areas, but you can attack the problems, skills in so many ways.

To me my mothers words at later stage in my life allows me to question even the most decorated coaches in history, should I agree what they say, write just because they are "greats" or should I take what i like from them and be ME?

To me its all about being yourself, you cant be a good teacher if you are not teaching by experience, passion and what suits your personality. Bad teachers just teach what the book says and has no thoughts of their own, they dont teach in my mind, they just "pass on what somebody else has taught".

You are not like everyone else, influences from all over the world combined with my personality has mad me the coach I`m not because I followed a few great ones like a fanatic.

Basketball is a funny sport in one way, since some great coaches do something on the highest level and then everyone almost follows no matter what teams, age, level they are on like this is the new truth and the new only way to play, practise.

Once they said the earth wasn`t round, but flat....once everybody laughed at Janne Bokløv from Sweden when he introduced the "V" shaped legplacement in ski jumping a few years later and everone followed.

You have the classic high jumping change in styles with the Fosberry flop.

I have never been a follower I have choosen my own way in good ways and bad ways, but at least I`m trying to be me and nobody else.

I think we killing basketball with all this pick and roll basketball instead of more movement without the ball, less dribbling and more action. Pick and roll is fairly usuccesful when you break it down into stats. I can acctually find myself being bored watching games nowdays since its so predictable and many teams on the highest levels look like. OK, well we have give up lets run the same offenses as everybody else. In my world its all about doing something everone else is not doing and because of that give them headaches and make them adapt to you and spend time to prepaire to play you.

Basketball needs to adapt to the more and more athletic players, bigger, faster stronger and a slow pace pick and roll offense is to me not the solution, its not very fun to watch, not very effective and only involves a few players. Its a coaches simply way to keep the ball in the best ballhandlers hands and cause of that less turnovers and more control, but in many teams you get very little out of your players potential.

I will never be a euroleague coach, dont have the ambition, or the brown noose to succeed, but I would do it my way if I had the chance. Would my team play pick and roll yes but not as first or last option every single time.

Was in greeece some years ago watching Aris practise before their big game against Panaithiakos and coach says, well this offense, and this and this and this is the same as we have, so we need to prepaire for those that we dont run ourselves. i can still remember thinking what the fuck......

Playing the same offense as Panathiakos a team that always is great, with great players and a legendary coach lets help them win over us. Dont get it....,maybe thats why I`m on the level I`m I dont know, but to me that is like watching the movie titanic, you know that boat will sink at the end and you still watch it.

Because of this locked set plays/ high pick and roll offense, many great players never get their chance to shyne or put up numbers. it will alomst everytime ivolve the same players game after game since coaches put them in the spots in the set to get the ball.

Really great players will play better in more motion based offense, no not without any rules thats not what I`m talking about, but the get the chance to really create plays for themselevs, for teammates, the get to use what to have been given and what they have worked hard for.

Setplays are fine I love them.....but I think you need both not only sets or motion and most of all not all this pick and roll. There are not many players that are great in pick and roll and if the shoe doesn`t fit dont wear it.

More action, less pick and roll thats all I wish for.
But then again I`m not like everyone else :-)

"When my time on earth is gone, and my activities here are passed, I want they bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass!"
Bobby Knight

Soon Madrid for me and......

....my two teams. Both boys and girls 98 are going to Madrid in Spain for a week to train, play and experience the positives sides of Madrid.

We are about 50 people in all coming to Madrid and I look forward to it like crazy.

Can you see the talent or do you need new glasses?

After so many years in basketball I can only come to the conclusion that many, way to many coaches in the nordic are close to blind when it comes to identifying talent at younger ages.

The reasons are many, but some huge problems are:

Generelly most dont do tests or checkups, wingspann, reach, background check height, family genetics, sports background and so on.

Its not a surprize that many great athleets come from one or two parents with sports background or it runs in the family.

Its not a surprize that a player whick will be tall has problems with cordination and doing all the stuff the "small ballers" can do. Most matchups are tall uncordinated against much smaller and quicker player and that of course makes it very hard for the tall player to attack the basket with the crossover or whatever.

Coaches have a couple of solutions for this: They dont put the tall player in the roster, they place them under the basket or make them screeners and rebounders.

He/she is 14, check yourself coach!

Once heard a coach talk about a game that was ongoing and he said; "I cant understand why this coach plays his tallest as pointguard, if he would put him inside they would win this game"

Who cares!?
The player today plays college and had several double doubles this past season at the highest level. She is still about the same height and has a lot of thanking to do that she didn`t play inside when she was young.

Identifying talent  is so important in nations where Basketball aint so big, cause we need every one of those to get better further on.

Several years ago a had a young bigman about 205cm at 15(he is now 211cm and will play college. I started him every single game and we lost several games because I played him so much that I did. As you maybe undertstand he had to defend against 170cm, 180c, players and that missmatch at that age almost only works for the smallballer.

After a game a former eliteplayer (bigman) came over to me and said something like this "Big respect to you for playing the bigman most wouldn`t, I just wanted to tell you that you are doing the right thing" and thats sadly true.
To me this was a big clap on the shoulder, since somebody noticed what I was trying to do for this kid.

Physic testing has gotten veyr populaur in nordic nowdays and thats great, but you cant compaire 210cm with 180cm`s in running tests. Many make a big deal with conditioning tests that make no sense in hell when it comes to basketball.

In basketball there are stops in average every 13th second and the players that run the most run about 4-4,5km in a game. We have to go away from football (soccer) conditiong tests and test for our sport.

We have to stop to always put the smallest at the PG position just because he/she has full body controll and can dribble like a and1 mixtape player. Sometimes there are no taller with personality/leadership to play PG and well then of course no problem in playing the smallballer.

I had a one of Pg`s in a nationalteam and I asked him who is playing Pg you and ?
He said "They will not use me as Pg cause I`m to tall" Holy christ!  To quote the great coach Jan Mikulowski

I will end this post here, cause I will watch U20 champioships game between Serbia and Germany and this is the last thing. To identify talent you need to know what talent is and what is needed in our sport. I great way is to watch international youth games and so on. The risk you take is that others say "get a life", well my life is basketball what is yours ? Working monday-friday and the getting drunk? Well not my coup of tea.

Peace, Unity & Basketball and having fun!

9 days left to work and then I got to Madrid with my two team to have a camp and lots of fun for one week in august.

Looking forward to vacation and visiting a hot Spain for a week.

Nigeria beat Greece today....

Swedish musiclegend Dr Alban, wrote a song "Hello Africa" his motherland is Nigeria and this song is legendary :-)


Hello world, tell me how is Greece doing!!???

Many years ago the threat from China was talked about, China will takeover and so on well never in basketball, but African countries can and many have realized it and more coaches, clubs, scouts, agents are looking to find the african treasures.

How is/was the camp?

I have a secret question i always use during or after some of my players are or has been to a camp. How is/was the camp? (Not a secret anymore)

Is it a genius question, well to me, the answer of my very simple question gives me a lot.


If the answer is "It is/was fun" it rings alarm bells in my head, why? Of course a camp should be fun to some degree, but answers that will play music in my head instead of alarm bells is "There are great coaches", "Super to train with great players", "I learned a lot", "super intense" and so on.

Its easy to make a camp fun for young players, but whats hard is to make them enjoy camp and get better at 1-3 skills during a camp.

Lets be honest if players would choose what to do in a camp very few would do drills that would improve their skills.

I look for a thank you coach later in life and the times a get them I know I did my best.


So coaches that do those kind of practises are often very well liked until the players that wanted to become something in basketball realize that "fun" killed their ambition.

I know I have heard of so many coaches in well knowned clubs through out scandinavia that basicly just act ref or scorekeeper at practises since they play 5-5 or eleven man drills most of practise, ohh forgot weave 3 man and 5 man, that magic drill.

With that they throw in some freethrows and 1-3 drills without any correction and in one hour at least 5 waterbreaks and of course 5-0 setplays nearly forgot that one.

Often most of the players with superior talent gets rescued at some stage by another coach, recruited to another club, but for the rest its a hard reality check later on.

But many players still stay with these coaches since they have fun and who doesn`t wnat to have fun, but its like giving candy to a child.
the subject
How many kids say no to candy? (only those who....)


How many kids say no we dont want to play 5-5 or do 11 man drill. Kids even want to run like the are chased by "jason" cause they have been taught at a very early stage that if you get tired and drip of sweat its a great practise.

If a teacher in school asks: You can choose between, staying in the classroom, going to the library or go outside to do your asignment. Whom stays in the classroom? Well from personal experience when I self went to school and when I worked in schools only the kids with very high grades the rest was gone before the teacher finished her/his sentence and why most teachers stay most of the time in the classroom.

Its simple......just as wine, decision making become better with age and coaches and teacher in school should guide everybody into the right track not let them make imature decisions that wil effect their future it doesn`t need to be boring but kids need help in finding their way in basketball and life and well everything aint fun lets just leave it at that.

We get better from our mistakes well after learning a coaches mistakes for 3-4 years you know a hell of lot about what not to do, but propably you will realize it to late.

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