Think vs. React

I found this article rather interesting on the difference between thinking and reacting as noticed by John Killilea.  I am not sure when it was written, but regardless, it still provides a lot of food for thought.

Basketball is not a game of thinking. No one can convince me that the great plays made in basketball are all thought out, because the game changes so quickly while the play is being run. It’s a game of reflexes. We recently beat New York. We had been coming over the top, over the top for the last three games in a row and all of a sudden John Havlicek, probably one of the greatest players that ever played the game without the ball started over the top with probably one of the best jab steps that Earl Monroe ever saw. Then he reversed and went back door. Cowens hit him with a pass for an easy layup and that was the ball game.


Now, why don’t others on our team run that play? Well, they do. We use some people, but John Havlicek fundmentaly is probably one of the greatest. He’ll work on the jab step, set the man up, and then take it away from him, and that’s it. Others will try that and never fool anybody because they’re not convincing enough. They don’t work hard enough at making it believable. Or they won’t run hard enough to get open. I watched the replays on TV and Earl Monroe wasn’t a quarter step behind John, yet that quarter step was enough for them to lose the ball game in Madison Square Garden. SO you have to look back and determine the basic fundamentals in basketball that won the ball game for you.

Fundamentals win ball games for you. It starts long before the ball goes through the hoop. It starts when kids are just learning the game. When I look at a college kid I like to watch and see what kind of attitude he’s got, and how hard he would work to maybe become another John Havlicek, or even get close to becoming a Havlicek. There aren’t going to be many to come down the pike like him.

-John Killilea, Boston Celtics & Milwaukee Bucks