I enjoy sharing from my many notebooks that I used during my years coaching high school and college and in my twenty-one years as an NBA analyst and clinic speaker. To this day, I am adding to my journals notes about the game that has been very good to me.

• As a coach, you have to make sure you understand how you motivate your team. Do you motivate by selling success or fear of failure? The same idea holds true in the business world.
• How are you going to establish you organization? Are you going to collect talent or build a team? Smart coaches know what this means.
• “Talk to your players more than you coach them.” Coach K from Duke learned this early in his career and never forgot it. He shared this several years ago.
• When it comes to leadership you want a player that, when he stands up, the room goes silent, the team looks up at him, and they want to hear what he has to say. You must have a healthy peer pressure in your locker room. Good tough teams have players that will make sure everyone adheres to the rules and demands of the team.
• A player has to understand the difference between the interest of the team and the interest of the individual. The game will tempt those that play it to do things that are not in the interest of the group. Selfish players will wreck your team and its goals. You want players on your team that understand the strength of the group, the pecking order, and the honor it is to play the game.
• Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their history.
• Choose a fight that is worthy of you. Look into the eyes of a giant.
• The teaching never stops

Gerry V is a 21-year NBA analyst, 17-year talk radio host, a 16-year coach, and current anchor for “Fox 8 New Orleans Morning Edition”, 5 a.m. – 9 a.m. and “Fox 8 News at Noon.” Follow Gerry V on twitter (@GVTalk).