Chris Brickley isn’t only a basketball coach. He’s the basketball coach.
Brickley’s clientele listing 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 develop into 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 abilities and take part in open runs with different gamers. In the true world, Brickley’s notorious “Black Ops” open runs have develop into a sensation. The notorious “Hoodie Melo” runs in 2017 have been a product of that surroundings. 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 distinct 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 12 months. Brickley sat down with Ballislife to speak about this 12 months’s Invitational on Wednesday.
Q: While you began the Chris Brickley Invitational, what was your greatest objective for the occasion?
Chris Brickley: For it to be the largest All-American sport within the nation. For positive. That’s positively the objective.
Q: That leads into my subsequent query. What’s your long-term imaginative and prescient for the Invitational? You clearly see it turning into a staple on the postseason calendar, alongside the McDonald’s All-American Recreation and the Jordan Model Basic?
CB: For positive. I’ve all the time regarded 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 form of did my very own twist by including freshmen, sophomores and juniors. I place a giant emphasis on the exercises. So yeah, I form of had my very own twist to it, however that objective is to be that high All-American sport at some point.
Q: Why was Bose the proper companion for this occasion, and the way does their model align with the tradition you’re constructing across the Invitational?
CB: Every part about Bose. I imply, if you happen to’re simply their social web page, their ambassadors, the power. I really feel prefer it matches up with what I am making an attempt to do with the Invitational. It is 40 of the highest ladies and boys within the nation, and it is youngsters which have a whole lot of constructive power and are very profitable. Once I consider Bose, in my view, it is the perfect headphones out. It is the perfect audio system out. It is clearly excessive power, and I really feel prefer it aligns very well.
Q: The Invitational incorporates a ladies’ sport, this 12 months it was coached by Azzi and Katie Fudd. Why has that been such an essential 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 return 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 extremely good relationship, together with Tim, her father.
Once I was deciding, I used to be like ‘Okay, we did the boys sport, I wish to add a ladies 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 learn how to shoot. She’s the one who skilled Paige and Azzi rising up. She’s a basketball genius.
Q: Through 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. Working each exercise, each drill. Even the sport, on the bench. Me and Katie coached one of many groups this previous 12 months, my first time doing that, and it simply made me tremendous concerned. I positively wish to be fingers on. I would like the youngsters to really feel me. When the weekend’s achieved, I wish to have a relationship with the entire gamers.
Q: What participant(s) would you say actually stood out on the occasion this 12 months, particularly somebody who could not have been one of many top-ranked names?
CB: I assume I’ve two solutions for that. Gamers that stood out— I might positively 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 achieved kind 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, possibly just a few 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 very well. I feel he is gonna find yourself being, in my view, a McDonald’s All-American at this tempo.
Q: You’ve skilled among the greatest names within the NBA. What qualities do you search for when figuring out a younger participant who might ultimately attain that stage? What are some widespread traits amongst younger gamers who ultimately grew to become 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 over the past two years, there have been possibly 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 and so they’re not unfastened. They get unfastened because the exercise begins. However then that higher echelon man, the second they step onto the courtroom to work out with me, they’re already unfastened. They’ve already achieved 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 need to evolve. Yearly, each month, each week, there are new tendencies within the league. There are new drills I may very well 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 high 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 utterly. 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 form of confirmed me, like, that is how one can be particular. It’s important to dedicate and sacrifice a giant portion of your life.
I discovered this via Phil Jackson and Rick Pitino, equally, how essential it’s to get on a private stage with the gamers. You must 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 pieces you’ve constructed, from coaching execs to launching the Invitational, what’s been essentially the most rewarding a part of your journey thus far?
CB: Probably the most rewarding half is actually opening my DMs on the every day and getting messages, whether or not or not it’s a 50-year-old or a 12-year-old. The truth that I may also help push somebody to maintain going. Simply understanding that what I am doing is huge in basketball and it is touching individuals from all around the world.
