Chris Brickley isn’t only a basketball coach. He’s the basketball coach.
Brickley’s clientele record is a who’s who of NBA and WNBA superstars, a few of whom he’s helped develop from the grassroots stage. Brickley has labored with the sport’s greatest names, together with LeBron James and Kevin Durant. He’s been coaching gamers like Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd earlier than many of the nation knew who they have been.
Brickley has turn out to be so synonymous with coaching NBA expertise that he’s even a staple within the NBA 2K video games, the place his position isn’t so in contrast to the one he occupies in actual life. A one-stop store the place you hone your expertise and take part in open runs with different gamers. In the actual world, Brickley’s notorious “Black Ops” open runs have turn out to be a sensation. The notorious “Hoodie Melo” runs in 2017 have been a product of that atmosphere. Which was becoming, since Carmelo Anthony was the primary NBA celebrity Brickley ever skilled as an worker of the New York Knicks within the early 2010s.
This previous weekend, Brickley wore a unique hat. He partnered with Bose to host the third annual Chris Brickley Invitational in Chicago, considered one of many postseason highschool All-American video games that populate the schedule this time of yr. Brickley sat down with Ballislife to speak about this yr’s Invitational on Wednesday.
Q: Once you began the Chris Brickley Invitational, what was your greatest aim for the occasion?
Chris Brickley: For it to be the most important All-American sport within the nation. For positive. That’s undoubtedly the aim.
Q: That leads into my subsequent query. What’s your long-term imaginative and prescient for the Invitational? You clearly see it changing into a staple on the postseason calendar, alongside the McDonald’s All-American Recreation and the Jordan Model Basic?
CB: For positive. I’ve at all times appeared as much as the McDonald’s sport as being the premier occasion, the Jordan one too, however I feel the McDonald’s one has that status. I did not wish to copy the precise mannequin of the McDonald’s one by doing all seniors, so I type of did my very own twist by including freshmen, sophomores and juniors. I place an enormous emphasis on the exercises. So yeah, I type of had my very own twist to it, however that aim is to be that prime All-American sport sooner or later.
Q: Why was Bose the best companion for this occasion, and the way does their model align with the tradition you’re constructing across the Invitational?
CB: The whole lot about Bose. I imply, for those who’re simply their social web page, their ambassadors, the power. I really feel prefer it matches up with what I am attempting to do with the Invitational. It is 40 of the highest women and boys within the nation, and it is children which have numerous constructive power and are very profitable. After I consider Bose, in my view, it is one of the best headphones out. It is one of the best audio system out. It is clearly excessive power, and I really feel prefer it aligns rather well.
Q: The Invitational incorporates a women’ sport, this yr it was coached by Azzi and Katie Fudd. Why has that been such an vital addition to the occasion and the way do you see it evolving sooner or later?
CB: Azzi being right here, coming off being the MOP of March Insanity was actually cool. I’ve been working together with her since highschool. To see that her undergo a few of these traumatic accidents, surgical procedure, after which to come back again nearly as good as she’s ever been. We have developed a really, very shut relationship. Katie Fudd is nearly like a mom to me. We have developed a very good relationship, together with Tim, her father.
After I was deciding, I used to be like ‘Okay, we did the boys sport, I wish to add a women sport.’ There isn’t any one else that is extra tapped in than Katie Fudd. From a growth standpoint, she the one who taught Azzi how one can shoot. She’s the one who skilled Paige and Azzi rising up. She’s a basketball genius.
Q: In the course of the Invitational, can you step again and consider the expertise on the ground, or are you extra locked into the logistics and behind-the-scenes calls for of working the occasion?
CB: I am on the ground. Tremendous concerned. Operating each exercise, each drill. Even the sport, on the bench. Me and Katie coached one of many groups this previous yr, my first time doing that, and it simply made me tremendous concerned. I undoubtedly wish to be palms on. I would like the youngsters to really feel me. When the weekend’s carried out, I wish to have a relationship with the entire gamers.
Q: What participant(s) would you say actually stood out on the occasion this yr, particularly somebody who could not have been one of many top-ranked names?
CB: I suppose I’ve two solutions for that. Gamers that stood out— I might undoubtedly say Chris Cenac (Houston), Maleek Thomas (Arkansas) and Milek Brown Jr. (Louisville) are three guys that stood, however that is not a shock, proper? They’re projected to be like one and carried out sort gamers.
I feel my sleeper is Luca Foster. He is a junior, Class of 2026, out of Pennsylvania. He has a fairly cool story. He was ranked 88th, perhaps a couple of months in the past, after which he shot as much as No. 33 after which to, like, No. 16. I feel he simply wasn’t actually seen. he is like 6’5, 6’6, actually good deal with. Shoots it rather well. I feel he is gonna find yourself being, in my view, a McDonald’s All-American at this tempo.
Q: You’ve skilled a few of the greatest names within the NBA. What qualities do you search for when figuring out a younger participant who might finally attain that stage? What are some widespread traits amongst younger gamers who finally turned stars?
CB: You want a motor. You want urgency. So, clearly, I hand-picked each participant that performed within the sport. I am not going to say any names, however during the last two years, there have been perhaps two gamers that come to thoughts that simply did not have a motor. I needed to go as much as them and say, like, ‘Let’s go, sport velocity.’
Then I look again at a man like Cooper Flagg, his motor was insane. Or Chris Cenac. We do particular person exercises, some guys began the person exercise they usually’re not unfastened. They get unfastened because the exercise begins. However then that higher echelon man, the second they step onto the court docket to work out with me, they’re already unfastened. They’ve already carried out the work. Little stuff like that reveals that somebody has a motor and it reveals their urgency to get higher.
Q: You’ve been across the sport for a minute now. What’s one thing you’ve discovered about your craft, particularly evaluating and creating expertise on the NBA stage, that you could be not have recognized once you first began coaching?
CB: Man, I do not know something. Actually. Simply evolve, you must evolve. Yearly, each month, each week, there are new tendencies within the league. There are new drills I could possibly be doing. Simply having an open thoughts that I do not know all of it, and that there are coaches, trainers and gamers on the market that maintain the sport evolving. It is my job to remain on prime of that.
Q: You performed at Louisville underneath the legendary Rick Pitino. How did that have form you each as a person and as a coach?
CB: It modified my life fully. As a person and as a coach and coach. His hours, you realize, I witnessed him get to the workplace at 5 within the morning and keep till 11 at evening. His work ethic is unmatched. Whereas he was doing that, he’d be understanding and watching movie too. That type of confirmed me, like, that is how one can be particular. You need to dedicate and sacrifice an enormous portion of your life.
I discovered this by way of Phil Jackson and Rick Pitino, equally, how vital it’s to get on a private stage with the gamers. It’s essential to know what makes the gamers tick. As soon as you realize that, it will get simpler to find out about them and develop them.
Q: Trying again at all the things you’ve constructed, from coaching execs to launching the Invitational, what’s been essentially the most rewarding a part of your journey to this point?
CB: Essentially the most rewarding half is truthfully opening my DMs on the day by day and getting messages, whether or not it’s a 50-year-old or a 12-year-old. The truth that I will help push somebody to maintain going. Simply understanding that what I am doing is massive in basketball and it is touching individuals from all around the world.
