The more you come through, the more you're apt to keep coming through

A couple of excerpts from Jerry West's book "Mr. Clutch" (with Bill Libby), which was published 30 years ago this year (and is now a collectible).

West, who averaged 27 ppg over 14 seasons with the Lakers, coached the Lakers for three seasons in the mid-1970s and later served as GM for the Lakers and Grizzlies (where I worked with him when I was on Mike Fratello's staff in Memphis and consider him a real mentor).

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I've seen too many players who never improve because they think they've got it made. What they do well, they enjoy doing, naturally, so that's what they practice, sort of showing off, like a great hook-shooter who spends all day shooting hooks. I've seen too many players who won't practice what they don't do well, because they're afraid of showing these faults up, of being embarrassed by them. I always practiced ballhandling rather than shooting because I needed ballhandling practice more than I needed shooting practice.

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I'd like to say I'm "up" for every game, but I'm not. No one is. I try. Most of us try. But it's just not in us. We're sick or we're hurting or we're tired or we've played too many games in a row or something off the court is bothering us and we're just not sharp mentally and physically for every game. In high school and college ball, I'd say most players are up for every game. In pro ball, where the schedule is long, you're up for maybe two-thirds of the games. In high school and college ball, you have maybe five or six big games a season. In pro ball, you can't even begin to count the games that count as big.

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The more you come through, the more you're apt to keep coming through. Confidence is a lot of this game or any game. If you don't think you can, you won't. The teams that strung together championships like the Yankees in baseball..., the Celtics in basketball -- they had this confidence. They came through and kept coming through.

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There's only so much any coach can bring to a team and a game. No coach is a miracle man. None I ever saw, anyway. He either has a superstar or two or he doesn't. One or two men make the difference. With Bill Russell, Red Auerbach always finished first. Without him, he doesn't.

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[If you've never seen him play, here are some YouTube highlights of Jerry West.]