Coach as storyteller

There have been a couple of stories about the Warriors that have casually mentioned the fact that Don Nelson drinks Bud Light. This is a little strange, as you rarely hear about a coach's drink of choice. It does give some perspective on an idea of mine about coaches, which is that their real job isn't tactical but psychological.

How can you get your team to play better than they should? Convince them that they're better than they actually are. This means framing the situation in the most positive way possible, even–and especially–if this involves a distortion of reality. This isn't exactly the case for the Warriors, because they'd had a good record against the Mavericks, but any coach facing a difficult team has to make something up to motivate players. In this way they must become something of a storyteller, condensing information into a kind of seed that can be transmitted to the team.

So that's how I imagine Don Nelson: drinking from a Bud Light can like a well of inspiration, intoxicating himself from this profane oracle in order to create some fantastic tale that will spur the Warriors on to victory.