I think one of the main things that I can sort of bring is organization and I
think it's important for a staff to be organized so the players feel
organization. They know where they are, they know what they're supposed to do
they know what's happening. And envisioning the entire process is an
important part I think. You can get bogged down in the minor details but
having a sense of big picture what's happening for a practice, for a week, for
a month, for a season - that's sort of one of the main skills that I bring to
our team and one of the main attributes that I have. I think it also becomes about
people. I think understanding how our players are feeling, what's going on in
their lives what's happening for them. Because that's such an important part of
how they're gonna play in that game tonight. So really picking up on some of
those cues from our players and being able to talk to them about that, and then
find the right resources - just you know figure out a way to get them right,
figure out a way for them to play as best and as hard as they can.
My name is Jama Mahlalela, I'm an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors.
I was born in Swaziland. It's a tiny tiny country in southern
Africa. Most people have never heard of it. I was born there, I lived there until I
was 5 years old. I have a really unique story of a Canadian
mother and a Swazi father and living in both worlds.
I moved when I was 5 years old to Toronto and then grew up for the rest of my
childhood there. I went to college at the University of British Columbia in
Vancouver, played five years there, and again it was an interesting career, sort
of not being the superstar, not being the main player, but being a real integral
part of the team. I think my favorite moment from University was in my
last year we played for our sort of Canada West title, so our sort of
champion level in our division, and we end up winning the game.
In my early years it was the same dream as many of us - I wanted to play in the NBA.
That was sort of this vision that I had, and in my early years Vince
Carter was playing in Toronto, and that was sort of the beginning of basketball
to really bloom in Canada and in Toronto. And watching him and seeing what he could
do and thinking hey wow, maybe I could do this at some point, or be part of it.
As I started coaching, I started working his summer camps. So I became a person
that was actually one of his clinicians and ran the defensive station for him
every summer. And getting to know him and understand him as a person, watching
actually what he does on a daily basis was this amazing growth opportunity for me.
I knew at that point I wasn't good enough to play in the NBA, but I definitely wanted
to continue working with the sport that I loved so much and so
passionately. So I actually started volunteering for the Toronto Raptors.
I literally started mixing Gatorade for their youth programs, that was my start
with the team. So the connection I had with Sam Mitchell sort of taking me taking
me in as a son basically, putting his arm around me and bringing me into the team
side was a really important moment for me. That opened the door to me to the
real NBA. So he started that. then Jay Triano was a head coach of the Raptors
at that time, and now currently it's definitely been Masai Ujiri who sort of
brought me back into the fold, which I'm incredibly thankful for, and then Dwane
Casey. You know every day for me is learning from him, understanding how he operates,
the work he puts into what he does to make a team successful is tremendous.
So the more I learn from him each and every day is awesome.
For people that want to coach, that want to coach in the NBA, I think there's many
paths to get here. Right, there's many ways to do it. And I think for those
that aren't former players or don't have sort of a real coaching pedigree behind
them, it is about starting at the bottom and just finding your way in, and just
climbing one step at a time and I think the best advice is that it's a long
process. It's not immediate, it doesn't happen with the snap of the fingers it's
something that really takes time. And you got to invest in it, you got to spend
hour after hour after hour working at it, and perfecting your craft.
You have to learn what works and what doesn't work. And the only way to do that is working
with people - you know coaching, get on the floor, you know get a kid get one kid and
teach them how to dribble, you know get five kids and teach them how to run a
play. Find a team and coach them through a season. Those are really the key
attributes to becoming an NBA coach. And if you do it well people will notice.
And over time you know you can get there.
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