As we head into Season Four of the NBA 2K League and Grizz Gaming, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching three seasons of 2K League action up close, it’s that you can’t expect the expected. Things change, and usually when you least are least prepared for that change. Maybe the league build gets patched, or someone finds a particularly glitchy build, or, like happened last season, a global pandemic breaks out just days after our players arrive in market.
Last season we tried to be proactive, going all in to trade for an elite center, pairing him with the veterans we brought back from Season Two, and assembling a team we felt would be tough to beat on the big stage, under the lights. And then we couldn’t travel to New York and had to play our games from a series of apartments while using residential internet. Which, as you may assume, wasn’t ideal.
Still, we persevered, we fought, and even after an 0-4 start, battled back to .500 and managed to get to the point where we were in the playoff race down the stretch. We went on to finish one game out of the playoff race.
So, I’ve learned to be patient. To wait. This season, we put together a team that we hoped would be versatile enough to roll with any punches thrown at us. And after our guys quarantined and traveled to Memphis and quarantined again, we finally got our team all together and started scrimmaging. It didn’t go exactly according to plan, of course, but we made do as best as we could, filling time by going to Grizzlies games, playing 2K’s Team Up mode, even busting out some WWE 2K20.
Finally, we were able to start playing the League Build last week, and that’s basically all we’ve done ever since. In years past, I lived and died with every scrimmage. When we won a scrimmage or two, I looked at it as a sign that we were on a sure path to winning a title. When we lost a scrimmage, I felt like we might as well forfeit the rest of our games. What I was missing was the bigger picture, the understanding that one scrim does not make or break our team.
But what we can do, I’ve learned, is focus on the small stuff. Having a group of players who are familiar with each other allowed us to speed through some of the initial growing pains—figuring out lineups and offensive sets and basic coverages and presses. So we’ve been able to use the scrimmages to sweat the really small stuff. How will we handle defending fast breaks? When the clock is running down at the end of the game and we need a bucket, what play do we have that works? Getting granular is a luxury, one that we’ve never really had before.
I’ve found myself pleasantly surprised at how we’ve come together, and I’ve appreciated the little things, like players talking each other up after bad sequences, and even stuff like Spartan showing up to practice on Sunday morning with doughnuts and milk for everyone. There’s a lot of leadership on this team, but there’s also a tacit understanding of what each person’s role is and knowing when to not overstep boundaries. As a coach, I’ve always believed that it’s best to let the players handle stuff internally, and if needed I can weigh in. I haven’t had to do much of that so far this season, which is rewarding in and of itself.
A few weeks ago, I walked in one morning and wrote the word “BELIEVE” on the dry erase board. Was this a motivational ploy I stole from the great Apple TV series “Ted Lasso”? Perhaps. But it doesn’t lessen the impact of the idea. Trust. Believe. And we can go places we’ve never been before.
Now we have to play the games. I don’t know how the season is going to go. Will we reach our goal of making the postseason? I can only hope. There is plenty that we can improve upon, and we have time to get there.
This has been the toughest part for me: Patience. Understanding that time is the ultimate coach, and that all the development and learning we are hoping for can come with time, provided we put in the work. Development, particularly internal development, is something we’ve invested in heavily. It requires dedication and commitment from our players, but they’ve been willing to grind, and grind harder than they’ve ever worked before.
All I ask is that our players believe. In themselves. In each other. In us. Believe.