Lamar head coach Pat Knight recently had some choice words for his team after a loss. While you may not be coaching at a level where you want to publicly call out your players, Coach Knight does offer up some great points you can use to help teach your kids what it takes to win.
The chances are pretty good that you have had or will have a team that is full of bad attitudes, makes bad choices on and off the court, and lacks leadership. Coach Knight, in this press conference, shares a lot of thoughts that players need to hear.
I’ll share some of what Coach Knight said here and the video of the press conference is below. It’s definitely worth a watch. Coach Knight speaks a lot of truths that many of our youth today aren’t being taught or being held accountable for!
“…their mentality is awful, their attitude is awful; it’s been their M.O. for the last 3 years.”
“It is an attitude problem.”
“When seniors don’t play like seniors, you’re going to get beat.”
“It is not an X and O deal, it’s a mentality.”
“We’ve had problems with these guys on the court, off the court, classroom, drugs, being late for stuff … I mean all that stuff correlates together if you’re going to win games. You just can’t do all that BS and then expect to be a good team and win games.”
“…no emotion, 5 guys out there as individuals…”
“These guys gotta learn, they gotta grow up. They don’t need to be coddled, they don’t need to be babysit. I mean, that’s the problem with society. That’s why we have problems out there; because people don’t make kids accountable.”
“The main problem is we don’t have a leader. We have six seniors but not one of them is a leader. We’ve got a bunch of followers.”
“We have a bunch of tin men out there, they got no heart.”
“You act this way in the real world, you’re going to be homeless, without a job … we feel sorry for some of them when they get out in the real world.”
“We can take them to the lake, but we can’t make them drink.”
“I want to be able to help them when someone calls about a job. It’s in their hands.”
“It’s not the talent; it’s not the size or the speed; it’s their mentality and attitude.”
Here is the entire clip:
Before even publishing this post, I’ve already seen many comments and articles that Coach Knight was wrong, too harsh, had a meltdown, is just like his daddy, etc… Maybe I’m wrong – and again, I wouldn’t say these things publicly with a youth team or even a high school team — but these guys are men. He is taking his seniors to task. These are men who are mere months from entering the “real world”. Personally, we need to speak truth more often and quit coddling our young people. Should we do this in public? Possibly not, but in a team or 1-on-1 setting these things may need to be said.
What do you think? Too harsh, wrong, or needed to be said? Can players learn from what Coach Knight said? Can coaches learn anything here? Share in the comments below!
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