Settle In

How my fellow ballers be? It's been a truly amazing time to be a basketball fan lately as the weather has been absolutely splendid in time for the NBA playoffs. Similar to my last post, my schedule recently has been quite stressful and busy, but I have continued to work on my game whenever I got a little extra time! Even though I couldn't work quite as intensely on the actual application of the game the past 2 weeks, I have made sure to follow the professionals very closely in each of their own playoff runs. I've learned since my last post that being a baller doesn't always mean balling out at your local court (or a bigger stage), but that ballers have to put in the time to learning the mental and strategic elements of the game. It may not sound like the most glamorous activity, but I'm telling you that you'll ball so much harder and more often then the other guys around you who didn't make the effort.

I still believe that just getting out and playing pickup games is one of the most accurate indicators of your personal skill level as a baller. The next time you play in a pickup game, pay attention to the areas of your game that you need to improve; trust me, it'll be very easy to notice at least one area of your game you'd like to be better. If you don't feel you can use your off-hand to dribble and finish effectively, then work on improving your ambidexterity. If you feel that you can't beat someone off the dribble or drive competently to the hoop, then work on your ability to finish through contact and traffic. If you feel your shot just won't go in, be patient and give yourself time to really decide if you aren't just having an off day. Then get in the gym and work on your consistency and fundamentals. The best basketball players in the world constantly analyze themselves to find areas of their game to improve on - it's just not as obvious for them!

This week for my daily reading I decided to learn about a player who is riding a breakout season into the playoffs as the runner-up for MVP: James Harden. It was really interesting to read specifically about Harden because for most of his career he had never been considered even a starting shooting guard. When Harden was in Oklahoma City, he was a quick-ten-points-off-the-bench kind of player; he was someone who could heat up quickly and give some productive minutes. However, this all changed when the Houston Rockets took a chance on the young player and gave him a large starting role with plenty of opportunity to earn more minutes. Obviously Harden responded very well to the challenge as he has played himself to within just votes of being the MVP for the 2015 regular season. It should very encouraging to all of us to see someone like Harden have this kind success because it shows us that even a player who never received that much attention was able to improve to be one of the best players in the NBA.

Link to the article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1456280-4-qualities-that-make-james-harden-a-full-fledged-nba-superstar


Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad