As we begin our training camp with the Boston Celtics we know that one of our greatest strengths from last season, DISCIPLINE, must be carried over to this season. If you were to analyze any Championship team you would find that a big part of its DNA is discipline.
I see discipline as the bridge between goals and accomplishment. The basketball season is a long, long season. We were together for 287 days in 2007-08. Without individual discipline coupled with team discipline, we could never have accomplished our goal of winning the NBA Championship.
Discipline takes on many forms depending on the player: from Ray Allen arriving at the game site 3 hours before tip off so he can go through his shooting preparations before anyone else on either team is in there (and I will tell you this was the case every night because I was right there with him), to Rajon Rondo making a minimum of 100 shots before each game so that he develops not only good form on his shot but also the workout discipline needed on a daily basis to become an improved shooter (we estimated that he made almost 12,000 shots total before all of the games combined last year — and 12,000 shots if done with fundamental form can improve your shot, to Kevin Garnett working on some part of his game just about every one of those 287 days (he is a very big believer in fundamentals and repetition). And this doesn’t even take into account a Paul Pierce working on the treadmill many days whether we are practicing or not.
There were a number of ingredients to our Championship run and without a doubt our discipline was one of the key ingredients. If anyone out there is looking to become number one in their field, discipline must be a part of your everyday existence!…Coach E
