BYRON BURT – WHAT MAKES A GREAT NBA COACH? – EPISODE 1180

Website – https://www.upnextathletics.org/

Email – byronbrt13@yahoo.com

Twitter – @Burt3030

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Byron Burt is an aspiring G-League/NBA Coach who has worked for the Windy City Bulls in Game Day Operations since September of 2024.  He previously served as the Head Boys’ Basketball Coach at St. Laurence High School in Chicago, Illinois.  Byron also spent two seasons as the Head Coach at his alma mater, Stephen T. Mather High School before landing the job at St. Laurence.  Before taking over the Mather program Burt worked at Beacon Academy in Chicago as the Head Boys’ Basketball Coach and Assistant Athletic Director from 2017 to 2018.

Burt has worked as a coach at the youth level since his playing days and currently helps to oversee Chicago Hoops, the AAU Program he started back in 2016.

Byron played college basketball at Loyola of Chicago for Coach Porter Moser.

On this episode Mike and Byron discuss the characteristics that make for a great NBA coach including the importance of building strong relationships with players, emphasizing that effective coaching transcends mere tactical knowledge. Byron shares that a successful coach must not only master the X’s and O’s but also cultivate a rapport that fosters trust and accountability among team members. Throughout the discussion, we delve into various coaching philosophies, highlighting the necessity of adaptability and the ability to motivate players, particularly in high-pressure situations. Ultimately, this episode underscores the intrinsic connection between coaching effectiveness and the human element inherent in the game of basketball played at the highest level.

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Take some notes while you listen to this episode as Coach Byron Burt and I discuss what characteristics make for a great NBA coach.

What We Discuss with Byron Burt

• The Characteristics of a great NBA Coach
  • The ability to connect with star players and developing buy-in
  • Must establish a relationship with players to foster trust and communication effectively
  • Maximize player development and ensure the team competes at a high level throughout the season
  • Delegation is a crucial skill for coaches, enabling them to empower their assistants
  • In-game adjustments are vital for success
  • Building a culture of accountability
  • The ability to maintain a balance between being demanding and understanding players’ needs
  • Adjusting strategies and cultivating talent effectively
  • Recognizing what is not working and correcting it

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THANKS, BYRON BURT

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TRANSCRIPT FOR BYRON BURT – WHAT MAKES A GREAT NBA COACH? – EPISODE 1180

[00:00:00] Narrator: The Hoop Heads Podcast is brought to you by Head Start Basketball.

[00:00:20] Byron Burt: A great NBA coach as well is getting the most out of your guys. What can you pull out of those guys? Put them in positions to compete. They want to be there every day. They show up. They’re competing throughout the entire season. They’re obviously believing in the process, that they’re believing in a journey, and I think it takes a great coach in order to get players to buy into that and believe in that.

[00:00:43] Mike Klinzing: Byron Burt is an aspiring G league, NB, a coach who has worked for the Windy City Bulls in game day operations since September of 2024. He previously served as the head boys basketball coach at St. Lawrence High School in Chicago, Illinois. Byron also spent two seasons as the head coach at his alma mater, Stephen t Mather High School, before landing the job at St.

Lawrence. Prior to taking over the Mather program, Burt worked at Beacon Academy in Chicago as the head boys, basketball coach, and assistant athletic director from 2017 to 2018, Burt has worked as a coach at the youth level since his playing days, and currently helps to oversee Chicago Hoops, the AAU program that he started back in 2016.

Byron played his college basketball, all of Chicago for Coach Porter Moser. On this episode, Byron and I discussed what characteristics make for a great NBA coach.

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[00:02:16] Dr. Rob Bell: This is Dr. Rob Bell, sports psychology coach, speaker, and author of the book, puke and Rally. It’s not about the setback, it’s about the comeback. You’re listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast.

[00:02:31] Mike Klinzing: Coaches, you’ve got a game plan for your team, but do you have one for your money? That’s where Wealth4Coaches comes in. Each week, we’ll deliver simple, no fluff financial tips made just for coaches. Whether you’re getting paid for camps, training sessions, or a full season, Wealth4Coaches helps you track it, save it, and grow it.

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Take some notes while you listen to this episode as Coach Byron Bird and I discuss what characteristics make for a great NBA coach. Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason sunk this morning. But I am pleased to welcome back. Aspiring NBAG League coach guy who’s been doing a lot of different things in the grassroots basketball space and a former high school coach.

We’re going to jump on today to talk a little bit about what makes a good NBA coach, debate that back and forth, talk about some of the different characteristics, some of the experiences that Byron’s had. Byron, welcome to the Hoop Pod.

[00:03:50] Byron Burt: What’s going on? Mike? Appreciate you for having me on. It’s real good. Be back.

Good to back.

[00:03:55] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Excited to have you on for, I believe this is time number three. So you’re getting up there towards the top of the rankings of most frequent guests. So always good to have you, you on. That’s good. Always find a conversation to be interesting and enlightening. And you’ve obviously had a lot of interesting experiences since we last talked that were, you were trying to make your way into an opportunity to coach at the professional level.

So just kind of give us an update on where you’re at, what you’ve been doing for the last couple whatever last couple months, and then we’re going to dive right into our topic.

[00:04:28] Byron Burt: Yeah, man. Still in the process of trying to get in, but  still currently working with the Windy City Bulls.

So that’s, it’s been, it’s still been, it’s been a real cool experience just going through everything. Having opportunity to go to other practices, you know having opportunities to still go to Summer league and talk with more different people. So yeah, that was, that’s, that’s been a pr pretty cool experience.

And we also took our AAU program to Canada. They actually have to go to Canada this summer. That was my first time going to Canada as well. So that was pretty cool. And that’s pretty much it, man. I’ve just been doing a lot of other different things, traveling and checking out practices. I’m still helping, I’m helping out my friend who who’s the head coach at Oak Forest in in Illinois here, helping him out a little bit when I get time and helping out with his feeder kids and then helping out with his varsity kids.

So literally, I’m like all over the place right now. But obviously still trying to get a, get a position in the NBA reaching out to a lot of people. It’s crazy too that you, you get a lot of responses from a lot of general managers in the NBA. I get a lot of responses from vice presidents and, and basketball operation people.

So it’s good to just continue to keep getting out.

[00:05:42] Mike Klinzing: I think that one of the things that I’ve found through the podcast and people who have listened to me have heard it numerous times, but I’m always kind of amazed again, just how willing and open people are at whatever level of basketball to at least connect with you.

Right? And maybe they don’t always have a job for you, but the fact that even somebody’s going to take the time to respond when you’re reaching out to them about potential open positions. And  we’ve all been in those spots in other industries where you send something out and you never hear anything back.

And I think in the basketball space. So often you hear about guys who just are, again, you’re building those relationships, you’re building those connections and, hey, maybe I don’t have something right now, but I’ll keep your ma, I’ll keep your name in the back of my mind and if I hear something that might be a fit for you, share that with somebody else.

And I just think that the basketball community is pretty unique in that way in terms of being supportive of guys who are chasing their dream and want to get involved in the game because everybody ultimately loves the game and wants to see it improve. And the way you do that is by, by bringing everybody along with you, right?

It’s not just clawing your way to the top and leaving people behind in your dust. It’s sort of lifting up everybody together. And I think that gets,

is. A good NBA coach, and now you’ve had the opportunity to go and see a bunch of practices with different organizations, with different coaches. So just gimme your first impressions when you say what makes a great NBA coach? What are the first things that come to your mind? And then we can kind of talk through some of those characteristics.

[00:07:14] Byron Burt: Yeah, for sure. I think for me I think it’s different though for I think it’s opinionated for sure. It’s really about what you value kind of as a coach. I look at it like, when I first went into a couple of these practices for me, the relationship part was something that like I’ve always valued as a coach.

Like I’ve, I’ve always felt like that would, that would be like the number one thing on a list that would describe what makes it, it’s so many things that go into being a great coach. But for me that would be like, the number one thing in there is, is how well are you able to deal with people.

Work with people. I wouldn’t even say deal. How, how, how well are you with people? And just build that, that positive relationship with them to where you coach them to the best of your ability. You be honest with them, you hold them accountable. And also just players outlet to be able to feel comfortable enough to come talk to you.

I think that’s great. So just looking at a few of the NBA practices that I went to, that was the, something that I tried to hoop out first was the, the, the coaches. This relationship with everybody I recently got to go to Utah Jazz practice and you could see it immediately as soon as you walked in a building that will hardy values relationships.

He literally, I went there two days. He literally walked up to everybody who was in the gym. And he shook their hand and he introduced himself. He had some quick conversation. Obviously they were in practice, but like, you can tell like his, the relationship part is so important to him and you can see it with his players.

Like he, he did an amazing job, like throughout the practices, just just talking to each player, like as they’re stretching as they’re warming up, as they’re coming out of the weight room, he’s having these small sided conversations with them. And I didn’t get to hear all of them, but some of them weren’t even about basketball.

The ones that I did get to see his interaction with them, it’s just about daily check-ins about what’s going on in life how things are going at, at home with the family and some of them are jokes, you know what I mean? Just, just making the environment real light. And you know that the practice there, you can tell that the players are, they love playing for them it was, it was exciting.

They relate to them well. They’re able to conversate back and forth when, when if there needs to be adjustment or something like that. So when I look at great coaches, like that’s the first thing I’m looking at. Like, man, like, can you build that relationship?  I think that’s important.

[00:09:45] Mike Klinzing: I do think that that is key for sure. Yeah, I agree with you. I think the relationship piece is huge. I think when you look at the way that the coaching profession has evolved over the last 20 years, and you think back to, I guess the prototypical guy would be Bob Knight at Indiana, right? Somebody who, yeah, this is the way you’re going to do it.

We’re going to do it this way. If you don’t do it this way, I’m going to be very angry and upset with you. You don’t get to ask me why you don’t get to question or challenge me or bring your own ideas. It’s just, this is the way things are going to be done and we’re going to do it this way. And not that there weren’t relationships.

I know that there are a lot of former players from Coach Knight have built tremendous relationships with him. But certainly I think if you were to talk to Bob Knight during his heyday, or even at the end of his career, he probably wouldn’t have been someone that would’ve said the relationships were the number one thing or what we think about Bobby Knight.

We don’t necessarily think about those relationships as being, being number one in terms of getting the most out of a player. Right. Today, I think you’re a hundred percent right that those relationships are what allows someone. To be able to coach. Coach. And when I look at, at least again, from the outside, I’m not sitting in on NBA practices the way you are, but from the outside perspective, what I always feel like when you talk about the great coaches, you read articles about them, you listen to them talk.

What it comes down to in the NBA, so much is that relationship piece then also translates to the ability to coach guys hard to get them to believe in what you’re saying and to get guys to buy into a collective as opposed to an individual. Right? You think about the, the Phil Jackson method of like, Hey, you have to get Michael Jordan to buy into trusting his teammates.

Yeah. And once he does that, now all of a sudden he’s buying in and then you get to have team success. You think about the same thing with Kobe and Shaq, even though those two guys didn’t like each other, but Jackson was able to make it work and got guys. So I guess my question for you, and I’m just curious what your thought is when I think about guys that have that ability to build relationships and then as a result of that, get guys to buy in, how much of that do you think is just their natural personality that guys just have that to some degree?

I almost feel like you have that or you don’t. Or maybe you have it on a different degrees on a scale, like Right. There’s some guys that it’s just come supernatural and easy, and those are the guys that take that and run. And there’s other guys who maybe have it, but they have to really work at, it’ll be more conscious of it.

So, I don’t know how you think about it in terms of just, I don’t want to say it being a natural ability, but just, you know what I’m saying, that guys just seem to be able to do that well, just right out of the gate.

[00:12:43] Byron Burt: Yeah. I think it’s, I definitely believe it’s who you are. Like, you know. I love, like, I love like listening to like guys like Joe Missoula, like they talk about it so much just about like, you’re not, it’s, this is like the, the person you are is, is first like we’re not basketball coaches.

Like we’re, we’re human beings first. And I think it, it, that’s what it’s always going to boil down to. It’s like who you are as a person. You know what I mean? And that, that is, that’s something that I think players can see and sense from the jump. You know what I mean? Like, that’s one thing that I’ve been learning, just talking with you in a lot of NBA guys is that you can’t fake this.

Like, they, like, they can see right through the bullshit. It’s no fake. You can’t you can’t go in here and, and try to fake these conversations. Like it has to be genuine conversation. And if you ain’t got nothing to talk about, you just don’t got nothing to talk about. Like, it’s just that simple and it’s just, and it, and that’s okay.

You know what I mean? So like, yeah, I, I do think it’s something that, you know. You have as a person. And  I do, I do think it’s something that NBA general managers, when they’re hiring coaches, that’s part of the process when they have that conversation with you, like, can they sense that that genuine feel from you?

And not everybody has that, that, that, that, that kind of, that personality where they might the relationship part is important to them. I think it’s some coaches in NBA that’s just like here’s the, I’m, I’m a X and O guy and this is, this is, it’s just Xs and Os. But I just feel like it’s hard to get your locker room to buy into the X’s and Os when they’re not bought into the person first.

 and it’s a little bit different too when you go in NCA because it’s a business at the end of the day. Like even though you don’t like the person, you still have to get your job done because you’re getting paid a lot of money. You know what I mean? So, and it’s, and it’s a business and we, and we have to operate, and college is kind of turning into that a little bit as well and trickling down to high school.

But I, I still believe like it’s have to be who you’re I don’t think you can fake that. It’s just genuine.

[00:14:51] Mike Klinzing: I agree there. I mean, I definitely think that you have to coach to your personality, right? Yeah. The, the personality of different guys in the league, you can watch the way they conduct themselves on the sideline.

You can think about how they are in huddles. You can see, again, if you get an opportunity to go into a practice, you see the different styles. There’s no one right, correct style, right? ’cause you have to be yourself. Everybody. One guy could be the quiet guy that’s talking and he puts your arm around somebody and says, Hey, this or that.

And then you can have the other guy who’s a little bit more in your face and whatever. But you have to be who you are. I think the players really want.

[00:15:28] Byron Burt: I think my bad, like to cut you off. I just wanted to say, I think the biggest thing too, like what you just said, I think you need to have a balance. So I think it needs to be, I don’t think it’s like you, you should be on, I mean it’s all different, but I don’t think you need to be on the, the two ends of it.

I think if you can be right in the middle and have a great balance of being demanding and making sure players understand like, hey, this is serious. We have to get this done and we have to execute and be, and be on top of that. But at the same time you have to understand like mistakes are going to be made going through the process.

You have to be patient with players, you have to be you have to be patient with the process. I think if you got that middle ground is going to really help you be successful in the long run. So yeah, I think that that’s the key I think is finding that middle balance that what you just said.

[00:16:15] Mike Klinzing: That’s another thing. That’s another thing too, when it comes to understanding what your team needs or what an individual player needs in a moment, right? And that goes back to relationships where I know a player, I know what drives them because I’ve gotten to know them, not just as a basketball player, but I’ve gotten to know them as a person.

And so when you have that, sometimes  Hey, this guy needs a kick in the pants right now, and maybe this guy needs me to put it, put my arm around him. Uhhuh. And like you said, either way the good coaches know how to demand accountability, right. And get the guy to do what it is that they want him to do.

And that comes back to, for me, leadership. And then I was thinking about what you said in terms of some guys just X’s and O’s and we’re doing this and maybe that relationship part, I don’t know, isn’t as important to them or maybe isn’t as natural. I think of it when you talk about NFL coaches, right? And there’s guys that have been great offensive or defensive coordinators.

Those guys have the X’s and O’s on that side of the ball. They’ve got that down and then they get promoted to head coach. Mm-hmm. They’re not nearly as successful as a head coach. Right? Because for whatever reason, the leadership or the organization or the ability to manage a bigger group of people isn’t there.

And I think that when you talk about a coach at the NBA level, specifically talking about a head coach, right? There’s a lot of people that you have to manage. You have to manage the players, you have to manage your staff, you have to manage the media, then you have to deal with the people above you in the organization, your GM and your president and all that stuff.

And so there’s so many different hats that you have to wear as an NBA head coach that it feels like the skillset needed to be able to navigate all those things is one that. You kind of have to grow into, and you have to have some natural ability in some of those areas. But I also think you have to grow into understanding what all those different pieces are that go into being a basketball coach.

I mean the one thing that I always talk to guys on here about is you think when you’re becoming a basketball coach that it’s just all about basketball. And you very, very quickly realized that there is a lot more things to it. Yeah. Than just dissecting film and, and coaching basketball. There’s so much of it is psychology and organizational management and all these kinds of things.

And so it’s just very interesting to me when I think about, again, the difference between somebody who just is in the film room and has the ability to dissect X’s and O’s versus the guy who can then take that and translate it to his team and get his team to buy in and believe. And I think that still goes back to what you talked about in terms of relationships.

[00:18:55] Byron Burt: Yeah. I mean, ’cause if you think about it like. Everybody, especially in the N-B-A-N-F-L, it is kind of trending the same way in the NBA. A lot of guys, a lot of teams are, are, are really doing the same stuff, Xs and o stuff, but everybody’s kind of doing all of the same things. I think the main thing is how can you get your locker room to respond and to be accountable and to be active and to be just present every single day because it’s also a very long season as well.

So I also think you have to be a, a great coach has to also be able to delegate. That’s one thing that I saw at the, at the jazz practice recently was like he did a will, did a great job of like empowering his assistant. And that’s something I truly believe in. I truly believe you, you, you’re only as good.

You’re only going to be as great as your assistants are. And that’s something I, I wish I I’m, I’m learning and I wish I can go back. When I was in high school, I would put so much more on my assistants because they are, they are vital. You know what I mean? Like delegating them to, to be responsible for certain parts of the game.

Being responsible for certain players. Like, that’s huge. You know what I mean? It’s a game changer too. And it also gives another voice.  a lot of times players they, they hear the head coach talk all, all preseason. They hear him talking from the last season and they hear him going into the, the beginning of the season.

It’s like you, you need some different voices just to bring some refreshness back to and back into the locker room. So yeah, I think that’s important too, man. It’s just the coaches have to be able to delegate because at the end of the day, like everybody’s, everybody’s running the same stuff. Like, what can you do different in that locker room that’s going to get the players excited about being there every day and joyful about that.

[00:20:42] Mike Klinzing: I think when it comes to assistant coaches, right? If you’re doing a good job talking what I just said a minute ago, in terms of responsibilities, hiring a great staff is part of your responsibility as a head coach. And if you’re hiring good people as your assistants, what makes them good is the knowledge that they can bring in whatever area.

And so if you then don’t let them do the things that they theoretically bring to the table, then they’re just kind of standing around not being very valuable. And so it’s just so much better when you could delegate. And yet at the same time, like you said, it’s not easy to do that, especially as. A young coach.

[00:21:24] Byron Burt: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:24] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. Especially, I always think about first time head coaches, where right, you get that first job. You’ve probably been thinking about what you’re going to do when you finally get to take over your program for the first time, whether that be at the high school, college, NBA, whatever. Everybody has ideas.

When you’re an assistant coach of what you want, you thing to look like, and then you get that opportunity and now all of a sudden you’re supposed to delegate out all this stuff. Like what?

[00:21:48] Byron Burt: Yep.

[00:21:49] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. That, that’s really, really hard to do. You have to be very self-assured and confident that. A, you’re delegating to the right people and you’re delegating the right things.

And I think with experience that becomes a lot easier. It becomes easier to be the CEO of your program as opposed to being the micromanager of your team or your program. Mm-hmm. But I do think when you talk about the NBA, the head coach, right, has to set that. Overall tone and the message of this is how we’re going to do things.

And then yeah, you have to leave some of the detail and some of that work to your assistant coaches and be able to allow them to have the space, whether it’s in the practice floor, whether it’s on the practice floor, whether it’s during games, whether it’s talking to players in the off hours, whether it’s through film, whatever it may be.

You have to be able to leave some room for those guys to have things that they can do and be responsible for A, to help your team and your program be better, but then also just for their own development. Right. Because I think one of the responsibilities, and it’s probably. Maybe I, I think when, when you look at the NBA, you think about like the Greg Popovich tree, right?

Of coaches that have been part of his staff that were in San Antonio, that have now gone on and found success in other places. So you’d wonder, like if you could have a conversation with Popovich, you wonder how much of his thought process every day was in developing those people for the opportunity that they were going to have next.

You wonder how much that was actually on his mind versus just, Hey, I’m trying to maximize what we have here with the Spurs and give all these guys the opportunity. It’d be interesting to pick his brain and know what the balance was between those two. Yeah.

[00:23:27] Byron Burt: Yeah. I think when it comes to pop is that he’s a whole different, he’s in a whole different category.

I think when you think of like the young coaches when they’re picking their staff, I think their focus has to be like, fit. It has to really that’s what the NBA is come becoming anyway in terms of players, coaches, everything has to fit. Now. It’s like you can’t, if you’re, if you’re a head coach, you just can’t go higher.

 someone that’s been a head coach and they don’t really fit with what you got going on is becoming more about fit than just just the overall talent. But when you’re talking about somebody like Pop though like I’m sure Pop, when he first got started, that was probably a, a, a important thing for them.

He wanted to get guys around him that that that maybe can fill in some of the blanks that he was missing that could do some of the things that he was missing. But as he started to get established, and any coach that gets established, it no longer becomes about fit. It’s about you coming in here, we’re going to, we’re going to put you to work and you’re going to become what we are.

Like, you’re, you’re going to, there is no like, you’re going to do what we tell you to get done. And it is just that simple, you know what I mean? And it’s pop. So  a new, a new person coming in and, and pop’s telling you to do this, you going to figure it out. You know what I mean? You going to get it done. Yeah.

Ain’t no, it ain’t no if, oh man, this is not my fit. It is like, no, I’m finna get this done. So I think when you got somebody established like that that, that, that the kind of fit stuff go out the window, you kind of become what they’re already, you know what I mean? Like, I think of like the, the, I think of like the Warriors, like I think Steve, Kurt is great too.

I think he does a good job of  resurrecting people, giving, giving coaches a new, another opportunity as well. Especially a lot of head coaches that’ve been in college or in NBA, he gives them a, a, a, a big time voice with that. But I still believe that they still have a culture where this person’s coming in and Steve Ners knows that they fit well within this organization.

But I mean, Steve Kerr has a little bit of different coaching style, believe than Pop. I think his, his team is more player led. I also think Pops was too, but I think Pop had a little bit more of a a, a stump on his foot. So, I mean, yeah, like all those things I think is important, man. It’s, it’s other attributes too that go into being a gray head coach.

 I was, we was kind of, I was told you, I was kind of like talking with my friends about it. We was kind of having debate about it where it just can’t be about the winning, but it has to be about the player development. It has to be about the, the organization of it you know of how you’re running your practices.

It has to do with being able to make adjustments mid game, you know what I mean? And it just can’t be just about winning just the regular season games, but obviously getting your team to the playoffs, making runs in the playoffs, you know  figuring out different combinations where you can attack different people different teams.

So all those things I think is, goes into being a great coach. I don’t think it’s just one thing, but if it’s all about what you value though, I think that’s, that’s the most important thing is about what is important to you.

[00:26:33] Mike Klinzing: Well, when you think about what somebody values, and you gave two examples there, you think about.

Greg Popovich in San Antonio, right? Who’s the guy that, from a playing standpoint, is most associated with Pop? Tim Duncan. And then you go and you think Steve Kerr, right? And who’s most associated with Steve Kerr and the Warriors? Steph Curry. So those two guys, when you think about, and this goes back to what I said about Phil Jackson, right?

That your star player and your coach at the NBA level, when you’re talking about guys who have longevity, right? It can happen on a, on a shorter stint, but when you’re talking about longevity, guys who have been together for 10 plus years, you could be pretty sure that that head coach and that star player are in lockstep in terms of what they want that culture to be.

Right? You talked about in San San Antonio, we’re not bringing in guys who are bringing their own thing, right? It once we’re established, like you’re, you’re becoming us. We’re not becoming you. If you want to be here, you’re going to fit into what we’ve built. And part of it. Is that Tim Duncan was able to enforce that in San Antonio and Steph Curry has been able to enforce that in Golden State.

And I think when you look at the long-term relationships, to me that cohesiveness between the head coach and the star player is so important. And you can think of examples where that went wrong and the star player and the coach no longer saw eye to eye about whatever strategy, organization, however you want to look at it.

When that happens quickly, that team fractures and chances are the player’s not getting fired, the coach is going to be out of a job. And so I think in the NBA especially, it’s so important to be able to build that relationship with your franchise’s best player. And it goes back to the top of our conversation.

How do you do that? You have to invest, you have to invest in the, you have to invest in the player first. Get the player to understand that I care about you as more than a person or as more than a basketball player. I care about you as a person. And then together we can go and build this. And like I said, without it’s, it’s so hard for so hard to know, like is how does that, does that naturally happen just because of the person Greg Popo is, or the person that Steve Kerr is?

How much do they have to work at making sure they’re building those relationships? It’d be interesting, again, to get inside their mind of how much of it is just. I just know, I just know how to build these relationships. It’s not anything that I’m consciously going through and saying, step one, step two, step three, or how much is it just them really being conscious and going through and working on it on a day-to-day basis?

Does it come natural or is it, or is it work for those guys? That’s, that’s the question I’d want to ask them. Probably.

[00:29:17] Byron Burt: Yeah. I would think it would, I would think it would be natural. I would think that would be just something, you know that just comes from a want standpoint, like just being around. Yeah. And that’s what this game is about, is just about the people.

You know what I mean? Like, there are some fantastic people out there and just getting to know them and what they’re about, you know what I mean? Is, is great. You know what I mean? You, you, you  you built that love for that for that player, the person that they are. And that’s what this is all about, man.

At the end of the day, it’s like, it’s, it’s have to be about people. And I think with I think with, also a thing about being a great coach is understanding, like you just said it, understanding that you’re a great coach probably because you have a great player. Like I that that, that, that’s important too.

Understanding that like the players are making a lot of the coaches better than what they seen, especially at the NBA level. I think the more you can humble yourself as a coach and, and make it about the overall group and understand like this is working because we have really good players we have great people, we have great players.

They’re competitive, they’re showing up every day. They want to get better. They want to win and that’s important to understand too, in order to be a great coach. Like you got great players. Like you don’t mention, like Steve Curry I think even said this about like if he doesn’t have Steph Curry, he doesn’t, he doesn’t think that like his career goes the way it goes.

You know what I mean? So. Typically when you see one, see, see great coaches that win a lot of championships or that won championships, you always usually associate it with  really, really good basketball players. So that’s important to understand is like you’re not bigger than a team.

 don’t, don’t think that as a coach you’re it’s about you, you know what I mean? We kind of seen how that goes a little bit with the, with the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. I know me and my friends used to have that argument about Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Which one’s more vital to the, to the, to the organization.

And then Tom Brady leaves and goes to Tampa and win and, and, and, and doesn’t go too well for Bill. But  that doesn’t mean that Bill’s not a, a great coach for sure. But you need, you need great players and that’s some advice I got actually going into high school. I actually got some advice going into when I first got my head coaching job, I went to go meet with some other high head coaches and I sat down.

I said that in the meeting with Gary De Caesar. He, at the time, he was the head coach at Saint Rita, and the first thing he told me was, he said, I don’t care how good of a coach you think you’re, if you don’t have any players, and it don’t, doesn’t matter. You know what I mean? And that stuck with me from, from a very long time.

It’s like, yeah, you could, you could think you’re a great coach, but you, you need some guys, you need some guys.

[00:32:06] Mike Klinzing: There’s no doubt that talent is really, really important. And the more talent you have, the better coach you probably can become. I think when it comes to that piece of it and understanding your spot in the success of a team, I think there’s a balance there with the be that the best coaches have between ego and humility, right?

You have to have enough of an ego to believe that you as a coach can make an impact and make a difference. On your team, right? We always see that when you bring somebody new into a program, whether it’s at the professional level, college level, high school level, and a coach comes into a program that hasn’t had success for a while and suddenly boom, new coach comes in, new attitude changes things around, right?

You have to have an attitude and an ego and believe that when I take over this job that I’m going to be able to do it better than it was done previously, right? You have to have that belief, and yet at the same time, you have to have the humility to understand that if my three best players leave as free agents, or my GM makes a terrible trade, or whatever it is, and suddenly my talent level is lower, I have to be able to understand and expect that.

Look there. There’s some humility here that if I don’t have the players. There’s only so much I can do. Like Will Hardy is honestly a great example of this, right? Because I think his reputation around the NBA is extremely high. I think most people who watch the league, I think most people who are in the league believe that Will Hardy is and going to be a tremendous coach.

And yet you look at his one loss record and you’d probably say, this guy, I mean, come on, look at his, look at his one loss record. But the honest truth is when you think about the organization, the talent that they’ve had, the plan that they’re on, what they’re trying to do. You have to temper expectations based upon the talent level that you have, and especially at the professional level where you are in the process of trying to build a championship team.

And so being a great coach for Will Hardy maybe doesn’t look the same as it does for Joe Missoula the last couple of years. Yeah. When the Celtics are trying to win a title every year will Hardy’s goals, everybody’s trying to win and maximize their team, but maximizing mm-hmm. The Boston Celtics for the last three or four years has been a lot different than maximizing the Utah Jazz for the last three or four years.

That makes any sense.

[00:34:40] Byron Burt: Yeah. Nah, a hundred percent. I think I think when you look at his, when you look at Will’s team, it’s, the development was, was a, probably the, the biggest thing for him is, is developing the players, getting them better. And you saw that, and I think what the signs of a great coach as well is like, like getting the most out of your guys.

Like you can, like you can see the. He’s, he’s, he’s gotten the most out of those players. He’s he’s put them in positions to compete. They want to be there every day. They show up even when you’re watching the games, like throughout the whole season, like, I was watching Utah, like last season, like they’re competing like throughout the entire season.

 I know they, I think they won like 17 games or something like that. But like they, if you watch them and you didn’t see the records at the bottom, you wouldn’t know what the records was like. You couldn’t tell. And I think that’s a sign of a great coach right there. He’s, they’re obviously believing in the process.

They’re, they’re, they’re believing in the journey and he’s doing a great job of, of, of pulling that extra stuff out of them. Like you, I’ve, I’ve watched Keon George from his, and watched his development and he’s a, he’s an amazing basketball player right now. Like his maturity level is up. He’s a great leader.

And. That’s credit to the organization and them developing that and building on that. And I think it takes a great coach in order to get players to, to buy into that and believe in that. And he has those guys playing really, really, really well. So I think that’s a, that’s another credit man just to, to be a great coaches when you don’t have that, that talent, what can you pull out of those guys?

You know what I mean? So just make sure guys are going out there every night to compete at least.

[00:36:24] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. Being able to develop players is huge, right? Whether you’re developing a guy who’s the best player in the league, or you’re developing a guy who’s the 15th man on your bench. If you’re developing players individually, it’s eventually going to help your team collectively mm-hmm.

As a group to achieve more. So you have that. And then I think the other piece that goes to it is. Our guy’s going to play hard and compete for you and for the organization and for the team. And we know that that doesn’t always take place. It’s not always easy to do that, especially when your team isn’t winning as many games as you’d like them to win.

So I think that ability to communicate and get the most out of your individual players and your team is definitely the sign of a good coach, right? It’s definitely the sign that you’re trying to be able to motivate your team. You’re trying to get them to be at the maximum of whatever their potential may be.

As close as that. And like I said, every team’s potential is different. The the potential this year of the Denver Nuggets versus the potential of the Brooklyn Nets to completely different things. And yet David Alman and Jordy Fernandez can both do tremendous coaching jobs within the confines of the rosters that they’ve been given.

And so at the professional level. It’s a little bit different in with the rules and the way things are and the money and all, all that stuff. And at the college and high school level, there’s obviously different situations depending on what kind of, are you at a public high school or are you, are you at a private high school?

In college, you can recruit the type of players that you want, but obviously with NIL and the transfer portal, it’s just becoming more professionalized. And college coaches are dealing with things that five, 10 years ago they never would’ve imagined that they were going to be dealing with. Thinking about a salary cap and how much money they have to spend on NIL and how that impacts who they can bring in on their roster and all those kinds of things.

And ultimately what you hope happens is that the guys that are on your team, that you maximize what each individual guy can bring to the table and help them continue to improve. And then can you build those individual players into a cohesive group that. Plays for one another. And I know that’s one of the things that the colleges are struggling with a little bit this year, or I should say just in the current era that professional teams have always had to deal with to some degree.

And that’s just, it’s almost like it’s a year to year. I’m building a team and then I got a whole new team the next year. And the NBA turnover isn’t quite that dramatic, but clearly there’s changes, whether it’s a huge trade at the front end of your roster or just the guys at the back end of the roster turning over every year, you’re trying to figure out and build that cohesiveness and build that connection.

And I think the best coaches build that and are quickly able to get everybody to buy in and be on the same page. ’cause we all know, just like coaches, players have big egos too. Yeah. And so no matter what you say, you’ve have to get guys who are your best players too. Sublimate their ego for the betterment of your team.

And that’s not always easy to do. And again, circles back to what relationships you have to have. Have a guy that believes in you so that I’m the best player on a team. Why shouldn’t I take 25 shots a game? Why do I only need 19? How’s that going to help me? How’s that going to help our team be better? And if you have a relationship and the player believes in you as a coach, that sales job becomes a lot easier than if you don’t have that relationship and the guy doesn’t believe you or buy into what you’re selling.

I think, I can’t underestimate that in the NBA. To me, that relationship between the coach and the star player. Whether or not that star player buys into what the coach is doing to me, that is so, so huge because the money in the NBA that players make is so big. Not that the money the coaches make isn’t big too.

Mm-hmm. But it’s certainly nothing compared to what the players make. And so ultimately, if there’s an ego battle between the coach and the player, unless you’re at Greg Popovich and you’ve been in San Antonio for 20 years, you’re probably, and even then you’re probably going to lose that battle to the player eventually.

[00:40:40] Byron Burt: Yeah.

[00:40:40] Mike Klinzing: And when we’re talking about stars, yeah. And so you have to figure out a way to coexist on the same page. I just think the best coaches do that better than anybody.

[00:40:49] Byron Burt: Yeah. No, I know you, I know you talked about the college part of the relationships. That’s becoming really hard just because the environment changes every year like you’re getting these different players in.

But I do still think you still have to try to you might have to speed the process up a little bit. You might you might have to have more open time in your office to allow players to come in so you can get to know them. You might have to do some extra stuff outside of practice to, to enhance that in college.

But when I look at the, the NBA, you’re, it’s a, it’s a really long season, like you’re spending so much time with each other. So that the op opportunity to, to build that relationship in the league is, is there, but at the same time it does have to be something that you value and you have to want to do it.

‘Cause I know you can sometimes get caught up in the, in the mix of so many things going on and you might not really pay that much attention to it. But I think that’s that’s, that’s what’s probably going to separate you.  when you, when you, when you do get into that position and it’s time to go to the playoffs and there’s disagreements and things like that, because the relationship helps you to be honest more, it helps you to be straightforward with the with the individual.

And when you’re dealing with NBA players, these guys, these are adults they have families, they have kids, kids. It’s, it’s man to man conversations. You know what I mean? So yeah, when you’re able to, to have that relationship, you can really get through disagreements and, and really quickly, like you can get through it, you can have a conversation and you can get it fixed and you can move on very quickly.

As long as that respect level is there, that’s no disrespect between each other. You can get through it pretty quickly. Also think in college too, it’s still, I I never want to take away like that, that build and experience as a, as a man in college, I still think that’s super important ’cause you still got young guys  that are 18 and 19 coming into to college.

They still need building skills to become a a an adult. And it’s the same thing in the NBA. Like look at some of these young guys that are one and done that’s coming in. Like they still need that, that type of guidance. Like, and I, when I think about Will Hardy and him, I think of like how he still has Ace who’s who’s, who’s a, who’s a young guy who’s still becoming a young man.

Like I feel like you, it as a head, as a head coach, it’s your job to help continue to mold this, this person into a, into a great human being. That’s part of your role when you’re dealing with those younger guys like that. So the relationship part could be a little bit different depending on your roster as well.

He also has Kevin Love on his roster as well, and it’s like, so it’s like, but you also have the players too. Help with the younger guys, and I think it’s just a great, I said fit right, like it’s just a great fit now. Now you have older guys who are helping mold these younger guys and on top of that you have a coach who’s helping mold in these mold, the younger guys.

And it’s just a great fit. And it’s a, it’s a, I think it’s, it’s great to be in that situation like that.

[00:43:53] Mike Klinzing: I think ultimately, whatever level that you coach at, you are still using basketball to impact people. And obviously the impact that you’re having as a high school coach, a college coach, an NBA coach is different because the people that you’re coaching are at different stages of their life.

But I think the best people when it comes to head coaches and assistant coaches, the best people are still using the game to impact the people around them, no matter what level that they’re coaching at. And you think about guys who have been retired, guys who have relationships with their former players, and ultimately.

That the reason why they have relationships with their former players after they’re done coaching them is not because of how great they were at X’s and O’s, or in-game adjustments or player development. It’s because of the relationships that they had with them, right? You can take that and think about teachers, right?

Teachers that have an impact on people. The ones that you and I remember are not the ones that were great at teaching us algebra or how to conjugate verbs or about the war of 1812. The ones that we remember are the ones that we connected with and had a relationship with. We don’t necessarily remember all the content stuff that they taught us, and I think basketball coaching is the same way.

Obviously, the day-to-day piece of knowing the X’s and O’s and being able to develop players and put the right offensive and defensive schemes together to help you win games is obviously important and the higher level you go. The more important those things become in terms of your own job security and ability to continue to do what you do.

And yet at the same time, I still feel like even at the highest level, guys are still impacting not just the basketball, but coaches are also impacting their players as human beings and as people, just based on the type of environment that they created, like you describing Will Hardy walking around and talking to everybody at a jazz practice, that sets a tone, right, that shows and demonstrates something that.

Whether or not it’s an explicit lesson of, Hey, you should be able to talk to people and, and be welcoming and all those things. Whether or not that’s something that’s explicitly talked about or it’s just something that everybody in the organization sees and feels every day, and then there’s a trickle down and that has an impact on people.

And so I just think that by utilizing the game to, to teach more than basketball, I think that’s an important part of coaching at every level. And again, sometimes it’s done specifically like, here’s the lesson that I’m trying to teach you about life. Sometimes it’s just the way I go about my business that you see and learn from just what you’re seeing every day.

You, you learn from watching what your head coach does and how they interact and, and the way they go about their business. And there’s lessons to be learned there. So I think all that stuff is, is hugely important. I want to ask you about something that’s. Veering away slightly from the people relationship side of it.

’cause when I think about NBA coaches, one of the things that oftentimes causes NBA coaches to lose their job, and you mentioned it very early in our conversation today, was the ability to make end game adjustments. Right? I think about last year, right? Tom Thibodaux, people saying, oh, he’s stubborn in the way that he uses his bench.

He doesn’t, he, he’s not creative offensively. And so as a result, the guy who wins and wins and wins and wins, but never won an NBA title with the Knicks, suddenly he’s out of a job and replaced by Mike Brown who’s going to come in and maybe be more dynamic with his offense and change things around. Or I think back to Mike Bool, or before the Bucks won their NBA Championship in 2021, there was a lot of criticism of Bud that his style worked in the regular season, but then when it came time for the playoffs.

He wasn’t able or wasn’t willing to make an adjustment from his style of play. So when you think about in-game adjustments, how important do you think that is as an NBA coach? Because I feel like that’s something that is publicly on display, even though the average fan may not understand what adjustments should be made.

So often they hear commentators, writers, experts saying, this guy just doesn’t make adjustments, and that’s why a guy ends up losing his job. So when you think about that in-game adjustment piece, what are your thoughts in terms of how important that is to being a great coach?

[00:48:19] Byron Burt: Yeah. First think you have to think about what’s hurting you.

Like when you, when you, when you when you go into that, when you’re watching a game or you’re going to halftime and you just have to look at, because it’s going to be, it’s going to be so many different aspects of the game that’s kind of affecting the, the, the, the, the, the outcome of it. So you have to really look at like, what’s really hurting us.

You know what I mean? So like I was just watching the  the, the Denver Nuggets and the, and the Warriors game. And you saw in the first half that they were, it was hurting them, getting the switches onto when they were switching yo joke onto Steph Curry. Like that was just it, it was hurting them.

It was getting them and pick and roll situations. It was putting them in a disadvantage on defense. They were fo they were opening up easy buckets for them when it was when it was Murray and jokey in the pick and roll situation. And they put Draymond and Steph in there. So like, you have to look what’s, what’s really impacting the game.

And they came back second half and they started pre switching it already. So like they started making sure that they had a tag guy right behind Steph. That way when Steph gets switched on to the role, guy ing can go get Right, right. To joke. And now they got a matchup that they like. But like, those type of adjustments I think are important because you stop the bleeding, like where it’s really hurting you at.

And I think when you’re getting killed and pick and roll. Situations because you’re getting cross matched. You can figure out a way to, to get the, to, to dictate the, the matchups. Like that, those are great adjustments, you know what I mean? Sometimes I think, I think  when we look into the media or you you read what, what people are writing online.

Everybody kind of has their own opinion it’s just kind of about tibs and things like that. I also think a lot of guys that have been in this a long time, somebody like Tibs, if it’s been, if it’s if it’s working for you, I think they kind of like, just stick with it. You know what I mean?

And they kind of just ride it out. And you watch the game and it’s not like, like when you watch the Knicks play, it wasn’t like they were getting like they were getting killed. No, it was like, it comes down to a couple possessions at the end of the game and it’s like how, how many, how many judgements was probably.

Really could have been made I mean, it came down to a few possession at the end of the game and it’s just just trying to execute within then those three or four three or four minutes and be solid on that end right there. But I think when you’re making adjustments, it’s important to have a curve ball.

 I mean, just try to always keep a curve ball in the, in your back pocket and rather that that’s on defense, on offense, and just try to steal a couple possessions here and there. But at the, at the end, it comes down to the execution though, a lot of the a lot of the games in NBA comes down to execution at the end of the game.

It’s a few possessions, so you really have to lock in right then and there. But I think the adjustment part is important. I think it’s different for every coach. I think it’s different for every game. Every game is different and you just have to be you have to be, you have to really see where you’re getting hurt at and  go from there.

[00:51:22] Mike Klinzing: Margin for error. In the NBA, especially when you get to the highest level of the playoffs, is very, very thin.

[00:51:28] Byron Burt: Yeah.

[00:51:28] Mike Klinzing: And I think part of what being a great coach in terms of making in-game adjustments is that you have to put the prep in before the game starts, right? To try to work through and think about it, be creative in terms of, hey, what could happen in this game?

And be, be anticipating what maybe another team could throw at you. And obviously there’s always things that could come at you that you’re not prepared for, and so you have to think on the fly. I do think that with the size of. NBA staffs today, right? And the number of assistant coaches that you have, and obviously guys are spending a lot of time putting in work, trying to figure out, hey, what do we need to do offensively to attack this team?

What do we need to do defensively to stop this team? And in the playoffs, when you’re playing a seven game series and you’re not flying from city to city and playing a different team every night, when you get to look at the same team and dial in on them for seven games, obviously you’re going to have a better feel for both what you need to do offensively and defensively against that particular team.

And so I think a lot of in-game adjustments to me would seem to be found in the prep that you do for each game, for each series, looking at the film of what a team just did to you in the previous game. And hey, how can we adjust to that? And then if we adjust this way, what might they do coming back? And so you do have that chess match and it’s, it’s interesting, again, to me, when you just think about whether or not.

Those in-game adjustments, as you said, three or four possessions. Is it the coach, is it the player’s execution in a given moment?

[00:53:03] Byron Burt: Yeah,

[00:53:03] Mike Klinzing: the coach is always an easy scapegoat. Right? For, for player execution and whatever. And it’s, the coaching profession is such a difficult one because you just have so many different factors that go into your success.

And ultimately, we talked about it a minute ago, you don’t have talent, your players don’t execute. There’s, yeah,

[00:53:25] Byron Burt: it’s tough. I think

[00:53:27] Mike Klinzing: it comes back on you, but it’s tough.

[00:53:29] Byron Burt: I also think too, like small adjustments that that feel like can be made through, through games. Like, like you said with the execution part.

Like just more focus on that. I think we, when we think, I think when when, when we hear adjustments, I think like we, we overthink it so much. Like we try to go into this mindset of like so technical of like, oh, we have to.  change something that’s, that we’ve been doing for a long time.

But most of the time the adjustments are like, let’s focus in on executing this specific action. Let’s execute on this defensive end. Let’s adjust to being more physical. Let’s play, let’s be a little bit more physical, this half, you know what I mean? Let’s let’s, let’s make, let’s execute, let’s execute.

And running the floor a little bit harder on the offensive end trying to like, execute, getting to your spacing, you know? So all of those, these are like really small adjustments that I feel like sometimes you just have to give reminders and huddles and just like  just remind them like, Hey, we have to be a little more physical.

Like, we’re not physical enough on this, on the defensive end. You know what I mean? We’re let, we’re allowing them to get to their spots, and those are adjustments that can change the whole outcome of the of the game. And at the end of a game, it can be huge just by being physical on one or two plays down the stretch in defense.

And being on point and being in position is huge. You know what I’m saying? So like I think people, I think a lot of times people try to make the sometimes I think a, a lot lineup adjustments are important too. Like, hey, like who do they have on the floor? Who we have on the floor?

Those things are important, but sometimes I think people over overthink the adjustments and they make it like like these, they, they have to be these like enormous changes. It’s like sometimes it’s just some small tweaks that you have to do or just emphasize and focus on. So

[00:55:21] Mike Klinzing: I’ve always been a believer in do what you do, especially I think at the high school and even the college level that be really, really good at what we do.

And the more we worry about what the other team’s going to do. And again, not to say that. We’re obviously not scouting teams or being prepared and all the things that go into that, but I think you make a great point there that sometimes we just have to execute the things that we’re supposed to do. If we can add 5% to just cut 5% harder or play a little bit more physical or just be a little bit crisper with this cut, or have the timing be better, that all of a sudden what looked like it might have needed to be a ma, might have needed to be a major adjustment, suddenly goes away just because we execute the things that we’re doing at a higher level.

And that goes back to as a coach, being able to recognize what’s missing from what your team and understanding what you’re trying to execute, how you’re trying execute.

Why it’s not working right. And sometimes it could be just as simple as what we just talked about. Hey, you have to cut a little bit harder. Hey, we’ve have to execute this just a little bit crisper. Hey, you have to get a better angle on this screen. Versus we have to take some big huge scheme adjustment to change everything in order for it to work.

And it’s a fine line there. And as we said, the margin for error, especially when you get to the highest level of the NBA and you’re talking about a seven game series, the margins between teams and one or two plays swings everything. And how much of it is just this adjustment or that adjustment versus sometimes it’s just the, the bounce, the ball.

The key is you have to put your team in position to be able to be successful. And the way you do that is through preparation and knowledge and relationships so that guys buy into whatever it is, they, you have to be able to share the knowledge and they have to buy into what you’re doing. And if you, if you have those things, I think the rest of it.

Through hard and just energy and effort can, can take care a lot of the, the potential issues that you may have as a head coach.

[00:57:30] Byron Burt: Yeah, no, a hundred percent. Yeah. I think yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot. It’s a lot that goes into it. I think just having all, just trying to balance it all out as much as possible that can help.

But it’s not a it’s not a, it’s not an easy job. I think it’s it’s, it’s very rewarding though individually though. But  as a person it’s rewarding, but it’s definitely not an easy job and it’s, it’s not a, it’s not a lot of praise in it, I think when things are going well I think so.

I think personally coaches get a lot too much blame when things go bad, but I also think they get too much credit when things are, are going well. And that’s why I feel like as a coach, you really just kind of have to stay.  even keel. But when you get to, for me, when you get to take this, like break away from coaching and like, I would advise that to, to any coaches that are, like, I hear so many stories about coaches struggling mentally going through a season or at the end of a season or even a a stretch of their career where they feel like they question if they want to do it.

I would advise if you could take a break from coaching, like when it’s, when it’s really daunting on you mentally, and you really feel like you can’t handle it. If you take a break, you are able to like really look at it from a different lens and then you can go back into it and you, and you’ll be, you’ll be ready to kill it.

Like right now I’m in the mindset of like, I’m looking at so many different things differently. Like, oh man, I was in this situation. I would, I, I can do this so much differently now if If I can go back or if I ever end up in that situation. It’s just putting yourself in a position to learn a little bit more.

And then just because you take a break doesn’t mean you can you can’t go back. You know what I mean? And I’m sure a lot of coaches in NBA, when they lose their job, they those little year breaks. They, they, they, they take, they can find get back to themselves. Some can jump in.

As an assistant coach you can learn a lot.  being an assistant coach, I’m learning, like right now I’m learning so much as an assistant. I’ve never been an assistant before. As a coach, my, I’ve been coaching since I was 16 and I’ve never been an assistant. So like I’m learning so much.

But it helps because I’ve been a head coach, so I know exactly what assistant should look like because I’ve been the head coach and it’s like, man, this is what I need from these assistants right now in order to make this program and make our team great and what it needs to be. So, but just being an assistant, you’re learning and you’re figuring out ways and the experience of being the head coach kind of helps with that as well.

Being an assistant. But yeah, I think sometimes people don’t realize like taking that break is, is, is so good for you can learn so much, get to talk to different people. And it just gives you a whole different perspective. So that’s been my, my my deal. These, this, this past like year and a half, is that like, man, it’s been, it’s been, I’ve been telling my friends like, this has probably been the best year and a half that I’ve had.

And you usually don’t say that after you leave a job. You know what I mean? So like, it’s been great and you just learn it so much and that’s what it’s about.

[01:00:35] Mike Klinzing: I think one related to that point, the grind is real. During the season, I don’t care what level you’re coaching at, it’s all consuming. You, you, you eat, sleep, drink all of it, all the time.

Your, your team and how you can help them be better is, is constantly on your mind. There’s, there’s no question about that. And so I think when you do take a break, whether it’s because you’re between jobs or whether you just allow yourself 15 minutes.  to take a deep breath and to step back. Yeah.

I think is, is val is valuable. And that’s, and that’s also when you have an opportunity, like you talking about being an assistant and being able to learn. Right? I think the very best coaches in the profession, at whatever level, are constantly looking for ways to learn. Sometimes that’s as simple as you learn from somebody who’s on your staff, who’s an assistant that brings something to the table.

Some experience that maybe you don’t have or just a different experience. I think you learn by talking to your peers. I think you learn if you’re a smart coach, you learn from players, you learn from going in the film room and not just watching your team and not just watching your upcoming opponent, but you’re watching if you’re an NBA coach, I know so many guys that are watching European stuff to get an idea of what, what might be going on in, in other places and the innovations that you see, and, and I do think that that growth mindset is something that is really important no matter what kind of coach you’re talking about.

Again. At any level, but you’re trying to learn and grow and, and add to your, add to your bag. And, and so it’s just an ongoing process. I don’t think you’re ever finished or done as a product, as a, as a coach. And the best guys, again, do all the things that we’ve been talking about, right? They know how to build relationships, they understand the X’s and O’s.

They’re not static. They’re always trying to grow and improve and get better. And I think to me at the NBA level, it does begin and end with what we talked about at the start of the pod. It begins and ends with the relationships. And I think if I had to point out the one thing that I think is the most important characteristic of being an NBA coach, it’s your ability to relate to and connect to your players, specifically your star players, your best players.

The guys who are making $50 million a year. That they have to believe in you, that you’re leading them in a direction that’s going to help them to reach their goals, both individually and as a team. And if you have that, then, like you talked about, a lot of teams are running the same stuff and not that innovation on the X’s and O’s and understanding all that.

I feel like that’s something that you can continue to learn and grow and whatever. I think the, I don’t know if the soft skills is the right way to say it, but just the ability to connect and the ability to lead Yeah. Are two things that I think are the most important part of being an NBA head coach, and then the basketball side of it.

Obviously if you’re coaching at the NBA level, you have a great understanding of the game of basketball, but to me, the basketball side of it is almost, almost secondary. If you don’t have the ability to lead and connect with people, I don’t care how much Xs and Os you’re not going to be successful.

[01:03:55] Byron Burt: Yeah. It’s tough. Yeah, it’s hard, you know? And I mean, everybody, I think we all think that and like I said, that’s why I really believe it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s about what you value. I think you have to be who you are. If you, if you value that, then you have to, if you have to ride with that. But again, some coaches will probably disagree with me and say, no, it’s not relationships.

They’ll probably say something else. And you have to do what works for you and that’s the, that’s the, you have to do what works for you, and you have to hope that it fits with the team that you’re working with, and it’s what the guys need. So, yeah.

[01:04:32] Mike Klinzing: All right. I think we hit that question pretty hard.

What’s next for you, Byron? What’s the plan here over the next year or so?

[01:04:39] Byron Burt: Yeah, man, it’s going to continue to keep trying to  get, get it, get a, get a position in the, in the, in the league, some, somehow, some way. But at the same time, man, just continue to keep traveling and, and talking with different people, doing podcasts like this, talking with GMs player, personnel, people, coaches, players.

It’s literally just exploring. And like I said, just keep learning. I think Rick Pitino said it best, like once he stopped, once you’re, once you’re done, feel like you know everything and you’re done learning and that’s when you should be done coaching. And I think that’s, that’s, that’s so real. Like when I feel like I’m, I have no interest in learning anything anymore.

Anything else, probably going to just just be done with it and and focus on something different. But right now I’m more open than ever, than learning. So, yeah, we’re going to keep trying, we’re going to going to do some we’re going to still do some things with the high school, with, with working with some players.

I’m still going to be in the G League. So, yeah, I’m going to have my hand put on a lot of different things. I’m still doing, still doing coaching, coaching youth kids now  and, and just just being a basketball junkie and just being around it all day, man, that’s, that’s, that’s just, it’s life.

It’s, it’s really life. It’s all, it’s all we do. So

[01:05:52] Mike Klinzing: there we go. There’s nothing better. Alright, before we get out, share how people can get in touch with you. Gimme your email, social media, just so people can reach out to you after they listen.

[01:06:01] Byron Burt: Yeah, for sure. I’ve been, I’ve actually been doing a lot of stuff on social media.

I’ve been trying to do a lot of breakdowns defensively. That’s been something I’ve just been intrigued by. And just wanted to do more of it. I actually really love breaking down the film and watching defensive coverages and, and effort and effort guys. And what they’re doing. So you can follow me on Twitter.  It’s @burt3030. That’s my Twitter and my Instagram, my email, people want to reach out to me. It’s byronburt@yahoo com and I’m always open to talk, talk ball with anybody. And it’s, I’ve had some people reach out to me after doing this podcast, and it’s been, it’s been great.

So always great to be on here. Mike, I appreciate you guys for having me. I always love talking hoops with you guys.

[01:06:46] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Great to have you on again today, Byron. Fun to talk about what makes a great NBA coach. Really appreciate your time and to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we’ll catch you on our next episode.

Thanks.

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[01:07:51] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads Podcast presented by Headstart basketball.