Never Mind the Airballs

Instead of trying to prevent airballs, focus on making the shot.

At Clippers practices, whenever a player airballs a shot he has to run down the court & back while the whole team stops & waits for him to return.

It's meant as a punishment to embarrass players so that they try to avoid airballs. But one day when it was Kawhi Leonard's turn to run after a failed shot, he refused.

"It’s basketball. I'm gonna air ball again. You [are] not about to coach or teach me that air-balling is not good. It’s part of the game."

20 minutes later, another player airballed. Kawhi turned to the coach and said: "See? You got it in everybody's head now.”

Rejecting the fact that airballs happen from time to time creates the opposite intended effect: Players so intent on not missing the rim end up missing it more often. The same goes for business and personal life.

On a podcast with Bill Simmons, Matt Damon talked about how even star-studded and big budgets are no guarantee for success. In fact, he goes as far as to argue that there is no way to accurately forecast success; “They’re all bets,” he says.

Bill Simmons followed that with a baseball analogy that works perfectly with the airball theme: “You can’t go 4-4 every game. Sometimes you go 2-4 with a home run. Sometimes 3-4. Occasionally, you might go 4-4. And sometimes, you’re gonna go 0-4.”

But you still have to be willing to take the tough shots. If the game is on the line, aren’t you going to give it a chance?

As Leonard emphasized earlier, you’re going to airball sometimes. Big budgets and a star-studded cast don’t guarantee success. Perfect form doesn’t guarantee you’ll make the shot. The risk of missing completely is inherent anytime you make an attempt. Accept that.

If you focus strictly on not air balling, you can miss 10 shots, but as long as it hits the rim or backboard, you've accomplished your goal.

All without making a single shot.

I'm perfectly alright with air balling every so often. I don't ever want the possibility of a complete failure to diminish my confidence to try hard next time.

So instead, focus all of your energy on the target you actually want to hit.

On making the shot.

On a successful marketing campaign.

On asking your boss for a raise or more paid time off.

Don't hedge or be passive. Know what you want and ask for it confidently. If you don't want it enough to be confident, why should the other person want it for you?

Always be careful what you make your target, you may end up hitting it.

P.S. - Here’s a link to the clip I got the Kawhi story from: https://youtu.be/uc1D8_gES0I

I first found this Matt Damon story in Billy Oppenheimer’s brilliant newsletter: https://billyoppenheimer.com/december-26-2021/