4 Things That You Can Do To Become The MOST Valuable Player On The Team

Right now, I want to talk about four things that are going to make you the most valuable player on your team. Now, obviously, when we think about being a valuable player, we think about the players who are able to score a ton of points and make a bunch of highlight plays and do all these crazy things. And that's obviously a part. A part of being valuable. And the last point that we'll talk about is actually going to sort of reference that. But there's so many things that you can do that you have full control over that aren't going to take you years and years of putting in work to be able to do. These are things you can immediately apply to the team that you're playing with now, the team that you're trying out for. And it's immediately going to make you more valuable and in return is going to make everybody on your team better. When I think from the perspective of a coach, the players who I want, the players who have made the most impact, for me, it's the players who make everybody else around them better. As a coach, if you can have players like that, then, you know, like, hey, even if that player isn't physically the most talented or the most athletic or the biggest, I know that if they're on the court and they're going to make everybody else better, then that player needs to be on the court, they need to be on the team, they need to be a part of what we're doing. So I'm going to give you three things that you can literally take right now and apply to your own game, and it's going to make you incredibly valuable to your team. And then one more thing that we'll kind of talk is like more of a big picture sort of idea. So the first thing is talking and having a super high level of communication. This is such an important thing. And players are so hesitant to do this. Right. It takes a certain level of confidence, a certain level of understanding that what you have to say is valuable. It's important. I think a lot of times players look around and they want everybody else to be the ones who are talking. They want everybody else to say what needs to be said. They might know, like, oh, man, I, you know, I should correct my teammate because they messed that up right there or they're in the wrong position, but I'll wait for somebody else to do it. And that's a problem. Like, you need to be the player who is the one who's going out and being the solution. And when you know these things, it's Important to be able to speak them. So there's a lot of areas where talking, where communication matters. I think that the easiest way to see it is on defense. And I think this goes back to the point that I just made. If you are really, really good at talking on defense, you're great at communicating screens, communicating switches, or the coverages that you're in. Really good at communicating what's going on when the shots going up. If you and your teammate get into a weird situation, could be able to communicate, a quick switch or whatever the case may be, what you do is that you actually elevate the game of everybody else around you. So I know that if I'm really good at talking on defense, I'm going to make my teammate better on the ball because they don't have to worry about getting hit by a screen that they don't know is coming. They don't have to worry about something happening that they're not aware of, because I communicate that to them before it even happens. So I can make them better just by communicating. And what that's going to mean is that even if I'm the worst player on the court, I make everybody else better. I. I relate this back to, like when I was in high school, and of our. Of the five starters like we had, we had a really, really good defensive lineup. And so I was the fifth best defender in our starting. In our starting five. Like, I was number five. But what I really prided myself on was the fact that I was going to make all four of those guys better because of the way that I communicated on defense. So it made me a way more valuable defender than, than what I would have just been if I just relied on, you know, how quick can I slide my feet? You know, how good am I at defending the ball or boxing out or rebounding, whatever. Those, those things matter. But I made myself so valuable on defense because I made our best defender even better. And I made our second best defender even better because the way that I communicated with them. So that should let you know you don't have to be the best defender to make a huge defensive impact. If you communicate at a high level, again, communicating switches, communicating whatever coverage you're in, calling out screens, calling out when the shot goes up, just overall talking through everything with your teammates, you're going to make everybody better. You're going to be super valuable to your team. But this also applies to other areas, not just defense. So one of the other areas I think is really important is just communicating in between plays. So when something worked, go talk to your teammate about it and give positive reinforcement. Hey, great look on that pass right there. Or hey, great job being patient before you made that play right there. Hey, really good decision to attack that guy on the drive. I love that you took that shot. Positive reinforcement, positive communication. In those situations, if something didn't work or they missed something, be able to go up to them and say, hey, next time, make sure you look for me on that back door cut, because I was. I'm going to be open on it. Or I was open on it last time. Or you could say, hey, next time when I grab that board, make sure you just immediately sprint out because I'll. I'll hit you. You're going to be wide open, right? Just communicating through things that maybe didn't work. Or hey, my bad on that, on that pass there, I thought you were gonna cut right there. You guys are able to sort of fix those things and communicate them. That seems so simple for a lot of players. It's very natural for some players. It isn't, though. It seems so easy. But you stand out so much and you become so much more valuable when you're willing to communicate at a high level, both on offense and on defense. That's number one. If you just do that, you're going to become one of the most valuable players on your team, because a lot of players are not willing to do those things. And again, this is something that's 100% in your control that you can start doing right now. So that's number one, talk, communicate at a high level. Number two is know everybody's jobs and responsibilities. So most players are so focused on themselves. And to. To a point, you have to be at the beginning, right when you first start off, maybe you're with a new team or whatever, you might have to be focused on yourself to be able to figure out what exactly you're supposed to be doing to make sure you're doing your job. Once you get to that point, though, you want to take it to the next level, which is, do I also know what everybody else is supposed to be doing? And when you can get to that point, you become incredibly valuable for a couple of reasons. First of all, it allows you to be able to play more spots and do more things because you have more knowledge about what's supposed to be done. You're not limited to one spot. You can now play every spot because you know what's going on. But then the second thing is, going back to the point that I've been Making you make. You can make everybody else so much better because somebody forgets what they're supposed to do. You can remind them. If somebody forgets to rotate on, on a defensive possession, you can say, hey, get out to the wing, get out to the wing, or hey, you got up top, or hey, go to the block. You can, you can communicate these things to your teammates if you know what they're supposed to be doing. If you know everybody's jobs and responsibilities, it allows you to again, make everybody so much better and be like another coach on the floor, which is such a valuable thing to be able to have right there. So this obviously applies defensively. Like I mentioned, understanding where everybody's supposed to be when it comes to help rotations, or if you're in a zone, understanding those things and be able to communicate that. Also, it obviously applies to offense. So you might be the point guard. Do you understand what the five is supposed to be doing? You understand what the three is supposed to be doing? You might be, you know, the three. Do you know what the four is supposed to be doing? So that again, first of all, you can play that spot potentially if needed, but also you can help them through if they forget what they're supposed to be doing. All that this takes is you really putting in time and effort to, to know what's going on. So for me, the way that I learned things is I would, I would write them out. If we just went through a new play at practice, as soon as practice is over, I would go and I would just write that play out over and over and over and over and over again. And seeing it on that piece of paper would allow me to really visualize it and, and keep it in my memory. And eventually I'd get to a point where I knew what everybody was supposed to be doing with that play right there. I would do the same thing defensively. I would just write things out. And for me personally, that's how I learned best for other players. For, you know, for you, it might be different. You might have a different way of learning it. You might have to sit there and like, literally visualize yourself going through it, because you learn best through kind of the hands on doing it. And if that's the case, you got to figure out what's gonna, what's gonna work best for you in, in those situations. But knowing not just your job, not just your responsibility, but everybody else's is so important. This goes back to a word that I'm so big on, which is ownership as a, as a varsity Coach, this is one of our four pillars, which. Essentially one of the four things that we live by, which is ownership. And ownership just means not being completely enamored with what you're doing. If I take ownership over my team, I'm taking responsibility for not just what I do, but for what my teammate does. The way that I describe it is that if my teammate misses a shot, that's my fault. There's something I could have done that. That could have helped them make that shot. I could have given them a better pass. Maybe I wasn't even the one who passed on the ball, but in practice the other day, I could have given them a better pass or, you know, I could have encouraged them when they missed a shot or whatever the case may be. There is something. There's some sort of domino that I could have tipped over that would have led to them making that shot, and that's what ownership is. Yeah. Is that necessarily true? Maybe not. Maybe, Maybe not. But you have to. You have to view things that way. Everything that happens on my team is my fault, my responsibility, and allows you to take so much more control over what's going on. And a lot of players look at that and be like, well, I don't want things to be my fault. But it's not really. That's not really the way to look at it. The way that you need to look at is that when you view things that way as everything is. Is my responsibility. Well, it gives you so much more control. And when you have more control, it allows you to more positively impact the outcome of things, which is going to allow you to. Allow you to be way more valuable to your team right there. So ownership is such an important thing. The third thing that's really important when it comes to being valuable to your team is taking more pride in your attitude and effort than in anything else. What I mean by that is that the best players are the ones who are able to be present the most often. Meaning you're not living in the past. So you're not worried about the mistakes you made and angry and frustrated about the fact that you missed a shot, you turn the ball over, or, you know, your coach has something you didn't like and you're not worried about the future. Meaning you're not worried about, oh, man, like, what if I turn the ball over? What if I miss this shot? What if coach pulls me? What if I don't play well today? The players who are going to be the best and most impactful are the ones who are able to Live in the present moment. So they're just focused on what's happening right now. They have a next play mindset, meaning all that I care about, all that I am concerned about is impacting the this play, this next play. That's all that I, that's all that's going in. All going on in my mind right there. And what that goes back to is understanding the only two things you can control are your attitude and your effort. So your attitude being super coachable, right? Understanding the. Hey, when my coach says something to me, it's because my coach wants to win games. In order for us to win games, I have to be at my best. So taking things from that perspective, even if you don't like the way your coach says it or how often they say it, being able to say, hey, they're saying this because if I'm better, we're better. And that's what it's all about right there. So take what they're saying, not how they're saying it. That's the first thing. Thing. Being able to be held accountable by your teammates is such an important part of this right there. Can you take being called out if you messed up something, if you missed a rotation, your teammate calls you out on it, do you take that personally and, and get in your feelings about it and get angry? Or do you, can you say, hey, yeah, you know, I messed that up, I got to be better, I will be better next time. If you can take things that way, you're going to be a lot better. You're going to be able to stay in the present moment way more often because your attitude is, is, is what, where it's supposed to be at. That's such an important part. And then your effort too. All that you can control is how hard you play and you can't control whether or not the shot goes in. Because I say I use this example all the time. You know, it's kind of a joke, but like, maybe the, their air conditioning is on a little high and it affects the shot just enough. You shot it perfectly. And in another gym would have gone in, but in this gym the AC was on and you missed it. You know, it's a joke, but it's true. I think about, I use the example of Klay Thompson all the time, right? One of the best shooters to ever touch a basketball, gets paid so much money to shoot. And you know, last year, you know, that final game goes over 10 in an elimination game from three. And obviously it was a huge joke and people like made Fun of it. Oh, clay was over 10, all that sort of stuff. But like, that's a guy who's one of the best ever, getting paid all this money to shoot. And, and when his team really needed him to come through, he, he missed. Because that's how basketball works. Sometimes you just miss shots. So being so focused on and letting a missed shot or a turnover impact your effort is like the only thing that you can't do because you, you don't control whether or not the ball goes in. You control how hard you play. So taking more pride in your attitude and your effort than anything else is a way to make sure you stay in the present moment. And when you stay in the present moment, you're able to impact the game way more than other players who are so focused on what's happened in the past, what could go wrong in the future. You want to be in that present moment. So your attitude, your effort have got to be at the forefront of your focus. And then the last thing, like I said, relating back to more of like the on court aspect of it, is being super self aware and playing to your strengths. So understanding, what am I good at, what am I bad at? If I know that I'm a great shooter, but I'm not great at putting the ball on the floor and driving to the basket, well, then I want to make sure that I stick to shooting as much as I possibly can because that's going to be the best look for my team. That's how I can contribute best to my team, by sticking to what my strengths are. And this doesn't mean that you can't look to expand your abilities, but you have to understand in the moment when we're trying to win, what am I best at? Where can I best help my team and allow myself to stay focused on doing that to my best ability? And it seems simple, but again, a lot of times players get so caught up in, okay, if I want to be valuable, I've got to do this and that and everything. When you can look at it and say, hey, where can I best contribute to winning? And it might be in one area, it might be in two areas. And if you can focus on being the best at that right there, you're going to bring valuable, you're going to bring value to your team. So again, if you want to be the most valuable player on your team, first of all, communicate at a high level, offensively, defensively, be willing to say what needs to be said and set the example from that perspective. Number two, know everybody's jobs and responsibilities, not just your own, but be able to first of all play everywhere but also be able to help out your teammates when they forget something or they need a reminder or they make a mistake, know what everybody's supposed to be doing. That's an incredibly valuable skill to have. Essentially makes you another coach on the floor. Number three, take more pride in your attitude and your effort than in anything else that you do on the floor because that's the only way to stay in the present moment. And the more you can stay in the present moment, the more impact you're going to be able to have in every game that you play. And and then number four is play to your strengths and understand what it is you do well, what it is you don't do well and realize that you don't have to be the best at everything. You've got to be great at a couple things and if you can really focus on being great and letting that be your impact, you combine that with these other three things, you're going to be a super valuable player and that's going to lead to you, you know, whether it's whatever your goal may be, making the team, getting more minutes, getting a starting spot, becoming, you know, a focal point in your team, getting an opportunity at the next level, whatever it looks like, make yourself as valuable as possible and those things become way more attainable for you. So hopefully that gave you some ideas and stuff to take forward into your season, into your games. Right now. If you want another resource that's going to help you take your game to the next level, check out my free Basketball IQ Masterclass where we dive into stuff that's going to help you to score more points, create more plays for your team, play with way more confidence. I always say the stuff that we go through in this masterclass can help you to easily add six to eight points per game to your average right now. Just because it's going to change the way that you think about the game, the way that you view the game, the way that you approach things. It's completely free. It's an hour long top link down below. Go ahead and check that out. Highly, highly recommend it. I've heard a lot of really great feedback about it actually this week. So if you have not checked that out, make sure you do. I appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.