Eric Musselman on The Details of Coaching

Eric Musselman is a basketball coach through and through. Today he is the University of Arkansas Head Men’s Basketball Coach, but he’s also coached in the NBA. Previously he served as the Head Coach of the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors. He also coached previously at the collegiate level for the University of Nevada, helping their program to thrive. In this conversation we dive into the the art of coaching, leadership, and what it takes to build a successful team. Eric is a hard-working guy whose attention to detail is through-the-roof. In this episode, we discuss his upbringing with relation to basketball (5:03), if he knew he wanted to coach when he was the ball boy for the Cavaliers in 10th grade (8:34), what his dad was like as a coach (11:12), what Eric is like as a coach (12:58), how he “shows up” for preparation and performance (17:54), how he defines “competitive” (21:08), if competitiveness is nature or nurture (23:30), team buy-in (25:28), if there’s a dark side to high levels of competitiveness and the will to win (28:50), the world of Coronavirus (34:00), how he’s managing coaching during COVID (36:22), how he approaches communication with his staff and players during Coronavirus (40:34), how he thinks about coaching against legendary coaches (44:05), if he watches a lot of the NBA (46:30), if he watches games of specific teams as if he were the coach making the decisions for them (49:56), what his mindset was like as a player and if it was different from his mindset as a coach (51:41), what he loved in a coach as a player (54:20), things he intentionally does to make sure he’s where he needs to be when he needs to be there (55:50), how he’s able to shut down and separate from basketball when with his family (1:00:18), and what it’s like to be at Arkansas (1:04:18). Make sure to follow him on Twitter @EricPMusselman. Thank you so much to Eric for coming on the podcast! Lastly, if you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening. -Brian Listen: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify.