Elijah Bryant tells basketball players to stop worrying about whether they start or come off the bench. Focus instead on what you control: attitude and defense. Switching, hedging, boxing out. Unless you're James Harden or Luka Dončić, solid defense is how you earn minutes.
You know what's crazy? A lot of basketball players are worried about the wrong thing when it comes to starting and coming off the bench. That is something you can't control, so why are you worried about it? Focus on the things that you can control. If you do this, then you will have more cognitive energy to focus on whether you're switching, whether you're hedging, or whether you need to box out. You'll focus on that stuff. But instead, you got an attitude when you come on the court and you can't even focus on getting under the screen to switch because you're pissed off at the coach for not starting. So now you look stupid because you're supposed to be switching. You already made a defensive mistake, which is something you shouldn't make because that's focus and that's energy. You will miss shots. No one's made 100% of shots. But in order to stay on the court longer, you have to play defense. Unless your name's James Harden or Luka, you're gonna have to play defense to stay on the court.
