There's A Trick To Coaching In The NBA, Earl Boykins Says
DENVER (CBS4) - On most teams in the National Baskeball League, many of the players on the roster make more money than the coach.
So what's a coach to supposed to do? How does he motivate his players?
"Coaching in the NBA is more about 'Can you manage the egos?' as opposed to the Xs and Os of the game," former Denver Nuggets guard Earl Boykins told CBS4's Vic Lombardi on Xfinity Monday Live.
Lomardi said several Denver Nuggets players have told him they like the way their new coach Michael Malone listens to them, but Boykins says Malone must earn the respect of his players, just like any other NBA coach.
"I think that's the most important thing, because if you respect a guy -- you can dislike him, but because you respect him you are able to go out there and perform for him," Boykins said.
Boykins said coaches need "to almost trick the guys" into competing every game and believing in the system.
"If you can do those two things, you'll have great success," he said.
Boykins has a year of being a head coach under his belt. Not in the NBA, but at Douglas County High School. He says after a transitional year last year, his team should be one to watch out for this winter.
The 13 year NBA veteran also is well known in some pickup basketball circles on the south side of town.
"I am a basketball junkie," said Boykins, who leads a team of guys with day jobs against other pickup teams that include one Chauncey Billups plays on. "If it was up to me I would play every day. I try to get out at least four to five times a week."
Lombardi, who is known to play some pickup basketball himself, asked Boykins how he is able to get a competitive flavor when he's playing against sports anchors and businessmen.
"When you play open gyms you try to play with the lesser guys in the gym, try to balance out the team, try to make it as competitive as possible," he said.
Talk during the show of course focused on the biggest story in the Nuggets world this month -- the departure of Ty Lawson in a trade. Boykins' take is that the Nuggets didn't get enough in return in the trade, but it is certainly a relief to the front office.
"Ty put them in a situation where they were desperate," Boykins said. "It was good for the Nuggets because I thought they were in a situation where they just wanted to get him off the team. I think they didn't want him to have any type of negative influence on (new guard) Emmanuel Mudiay."
RELATED: Chauncey Billups On Ty Lawson: 'You Just Worry About The Kid'
When asked about why Lawson began running into so much trouble off and sometimes on the court, Boykins said he probably surrounded himself with people who were negative.
"I think he began to believe what they were saying. He began to listen to what they were saying, and I think it led to his downfall here in Denver," Boykins said.
