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    Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out
    Unavailable
    Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out
    Unavailable
    Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out
    Audiobook6 hours

    Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out

    Written by John Calipari and Michael Sokolove

    Narrated by Chuck Montgomery

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In Players First, John Calipari relates for the first time anywhere his experiences over his first four years coaching the Kentucky Wildcats, college basketball's most fabled program, from the doldrums to a national championship, drawing lessons about leadership, character, and the path to personal and collective victory.

    At its core, Calipari's coaching philosophy centers on keeping his focus on the players—what they need to get the best out of themselves and one another. He is beloved by his players for being utterly honest with them and making promises that he always keeps, no matter what. He knows that in this age, they come to Kentucky to prepare for the NBA; every year he gets players who in a previous era would have gone directly into the pros from high school but now have to play college basketball for one year. Calipari has fought against this system, but he has to play within it, and so he does, better than anyone.

    The result is an extraordinary leadership challenge: every year Coach Cal gets a handful of eighteen-year-old kids who have been in a bubble for the previous four years at least, filled with hype about their own greatness, and they come to Kentucky feeling sure that they will play for their coach only for seven months before they go on to greater glory. Every year, he has to reinvent his team. After his 2012 NCAA championship, it was particularly dramatic; he lost his first six players in the first round, meaning that someone who couldn't even start for Kentucky was a first-round draft pick.

    The overall record at Kentucky, and for his career, puts Calipari in the pantheon of the greatest coaches in the history of the game. Bold, funny, and truthful, like Coach Calipari himself, Players First is truly the first deep reckoning with the meaning of his experiences and the gifts of insight they offer.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 15, 2014
    ISBN9780698152496
    Unavailable
    Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out
    Author

    John Calipari

    John Calipari is the head coach of men’s basketball at the University of Kentucky. He led the Kentucky Wildcats to the 2012 national championship and has been to a total of six Final Fours in his career, including four in a five-year period. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

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    Reviews for Players First

    4.5/5

    7 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      College basketball is demanding and highly competitive. John Calipari gives his recipe for success: players first. It means: manage your basketball program and coach your team in order to maximize players' interest and goals. You can resume this enterprise in one phrase: get drafted in NBA, preferably be a lottery pick. One year of college and you are ready to cash in the magic world of the NBA. Along the way, get some national championship for "Blue Nation" and its commander in chief. College basketball, though, is more than that. The work to get a degree, the process of learning basketball's fundamentals, the experiences that come from the campus' environment. Calipari is silent about that, but he cares for his players, maximizes their potential, gives them the hottest ticket in town. Maybe he is right. Better be a straight pragmatic. From this point of view, the book comprises its scope.
    • 5/5
      Really good book. Informative and helpful . Great advice