iloveball.com

iloveball is an organisation founded by skills development coach Andrew Nyeko. iloveball's organisational philosophy is "Kaizen" - constant daily improvement. With this training philosophy in mind, Andrew has channeled all his love for the game and passion to developing the fundamental skills and conditioning of basketball players, basing the individualised skill development on long term athletic development. Which ultimately results in the young aspiring basketball players that he works with possessing sound fundamentals that are valued at any level of basketball.

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This is an insane workout

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Profile of Jonah Otim, 6'2 Ugandan shooting guard/small forward currently playing for Ndejje University

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I grew up with this philosophy, that the ball has energy, when the team is playing together and the ball is moving, particularly moving fast, everybody is involved and everybody is happy. The game is easily to play

David Blatt - Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach

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Stanley Johnson: Inspiring Journey of hard-work & dedication

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Its all a work in progress. Each day the aim is to get better at something new and eventually that's all going to add up to something great.

Doug McDermott - Chicago Bulls Rookie Forward

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I've always felt that the characteristic of a championship team is who passes the ball the best

George Karl

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I'm Coming Home

"My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn't realize that four years ago. I do now... In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have. I'm ready to accept the challenge. I'm coming home." - Lebron

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Spurs: The Work Speaks For Itself

By Kevin Arnovitz

Gregg Popovich says "you don't deserve anything -- you just go play." That’s honorable, but it seems fundamentally just that the San Antonio Spurs won a fifth NBA championship Sunday night. Another title for the Spurs confirms a bunch of optimistic beliefs about the the way the world should work: process matters more than politics; people should be valued for what they can do rather than what they can’t; a meritocracy can thrive if it values the right things. Devotion to the process doesn’t always yield the desired results. In basketball, this is called heartbreak, and for the Spurs, Game 6 of June 2013 was a case study. Yes, there were a couple of self-inflicted miscues -- Tim Duncan comes up short in the paint, Kawhi Leonard misses a free throw, Manu Ginobili can’t snare a rebound -- but the Spurs didn’t deserve that. Then again, you don’t deserve anything. You just go play. And the Spurs lead the world in just going and playing.

Praise such as this for the Spurs always sounds a little quaint. The ideas themselves feel precious or even stuffy, almost too obedient to authority. “Commitment to process” sounds like homework. Basketball and fame are supposed to be raucous and disorderly. What’s the point of being a rock star if you can’t act like one? But very, very few institutions actually function like the Spurs because it’s insanely hard to get dozens of people to buy into the same vision. Those that do, such as the Spurs, are the true, honest-to-goodness nonconformists. All that well-timed stuff they run and the fundamentals and pounding the rock and never getting too high or too low and coming back unfazed after losing a lead 5.2 seconds from a banner and reclamation projects such as Boris Diaw and rodeo road trips that build character and Pop’s wizardry and knowing which mid-first-round pick would grow into the Wing-You-Need-In-Today’s-NBA and last-possession plays that actually resemble real basketball sets and almost never making bonehead personnel decisions and generally treating everyone in the office like an adult and having incredible command of the NBA’s bargain bin -- none of that is normal. In exchange for their buying in, players earn trust, whether they arrived in San Antonio as a first overall draft pick or on a bus from the D-League. With the game on the line, Popovich will design an opportunity to get that former D-Leaguer an open shot, even when most coaches would just ride their Hall of Famer against a double-team. R.C. Buford appraises talent not by the standards of current trends or conventional wisdom but by a steadfast belief in process and innovation. Duncan might not speak to a young teammate for a calendar year, but don’t mistake aloofness for indifference; he’s just sizing you up before he dives in. The most gifted players have every right to leverage their talents into power and have a voice in where and with whom they want to work. Duncan claimed that authority and chose to spend his capital on establishing a culture. He wants pro basketball to be about the work and to sell itself on the strength of the game’s actual appeal rather than the atmospherics or drama. That’s Duncan believing in the craft of basketball. Tony Parker quickly signed up when he arrived in the NBA. He spent the first phase of his career working to earn trust and has rewarded his investors ever since. So did Ginobili, a charismatic stylist as a player but completely uninterested in personal branding. Leonard, often miscast as a creation of the Spurs culture who might have wallowed elsewhere, wasn’t sculpted by the team in its image so much as he found a suitable place to work his magic.

What the Spurs create on the floor is a testimony to all this. Both the offense and defense operate on a collective trust and the principle that if you inspire people to use their instincts, they’re capable of being both smart and creative. That's what gets the junkies so giddy. So when Ginobili slings a pass to a cutter off a ball fake, or Green fools a defender with misdirection, or Duncan slips a screen on a whim, or Diaw drops a no-look interior pass to Splitter that fools everyone, or Parker improvises, or Leonard cuts into open space, or Pop draws up a gutsy play call for a last possession, it’s the product of a happy marriage between order and self-expression. Almost every owner likes the idea of being a “servant leader” -- in the parlance of business speak, someone who shares power for the sake of the cause -- but Peter Holt has pledged his trust to the people who work for him. How many owners willingly sit in the background and cede total authority to their coaches and lead execs for the better part of two decades? Most coaches and basketball operations people work to keep their jobs, and their decision-making suffers because of it. They fall into the trap of convention, afraid to assume risk because the consequences are too steep. Popovich, Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Buford, Spurs players and staff resolve problems differently. That combination the Spurs have achieved is what most of us want out of professional life. We want to do something we love. We want the freedom to experiment and to know that if we’re true to the process, we won’t be deemed a failure, regardless of the result. We want to work alongside people who root for us to be really good. We want to know that if we have to wind the clock 12 full months after being so very, very close, everyone will exhale, regroup and stay with it. Like Duncan, we want it to be about the work.

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You have to believe in yourself in order to get to where you want to go. If you don't believe in yourself! How do you expect others to believe in you?

Marcus Smart

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Has Basketball Helped or Hindered Your Progress in Life?

"Basketball has helped my progress in life because I chose to use basketball as a resource to pay for my education. Money is not true power, for true power I find is only available through knowledge which makes the money. In my plus ten year career as a amateur I have learned that my basketball skills do not have the capacity to define who I am as a person. I am a man, I am honest, I am loving, I am understanding, I am a communicator, I am a teacher, I care about my community, I suffer, I love, I am responsible, I make mistakes, I learn, and I am most of all very human. These characteristics are what make me who I am. Yes, I am currently an athlete also. However, unlike the characteristics mentioned above, I cannot be an athlete all my life. But my mind and my knowledge will last for as long as I live. My education in school has helped me learn about my identity. And I used basketball to help fund my education because the option was available to me.  Basketball has indeed helped me progress in life. I have learned new academic skills in school that will allow me to enter the corporate world and attain a career in the work force. A job that can support me financially and allow me to expand upon any new skills I learn on the job for as long as I live. If I had used basketball as a career to solely create all my funds or money then I would be limiting not only my opportunity to learn about who am, but I'd also be limiting my earning abilities over the course of my life time in comparison to using my education. I don't live to play basketball, I live to do more because I can." - Patrick Nyeko

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Kobe vs Jordan

After a huge buildup, the Los Angeles Lakers were being routed by Michael Jordan and the Washington Wizards early in the third quarter. Embarrassed, but not discouraged. "Not at all," Bryant said after the Lakers rallied for a 103-94 victory over the Wizards on Tuesday night after trailing by as many as 20 points in the second half. "We're fighting, we're world champs. "People see us having these gold uniforms on and think we're soft. I looked at that as a chance to show the world what we could do. I'm going to fight until the final buzzer goes off, for 48 minutes." Bryant scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half, and also had 11 rebounds and a career-high 15 assists for his third NBA triple-double. His effort, along with the Lakers' huge second half, made Phil Jackson the winner in his first game coaching against Jordan. "I did not know what happened in the first half, we kind of stumbled around," Jackson said. "I guess desperation is the answer to our playing basketball tonight." The Lakers took command by outscoring the Wizards 43-11 to turn a 63-43 deficit with 7:50 left in the third quarter into an 86-74 lead with 8:03 remaining in the fourth. The Wizards, who had their five-game winning streak snapped, didn't threaten after that. "This is definitely a lesson for us, we're not quite in their league yet," said Jordan, who led the Wizards with 22 points, five rebounds and six assists. "We folded under their pressure -- and that's what championship teams do to you. "We just lost our composure, and I'm a part of that. Defensively, Phil took options out of our game which open up things for me. If anyone knows my game, Phil knows my game." After leaving the interview room, Jordan went directly to Jackson's office. Bryant shot 9-of-20 and, just as he promised, got his teammates involved -- especially in the third period. And when it came time to score, he scored. With a little over a minute to play and the Lakers leading 97-89, Bryant hit from outside over Jordan, drawing one of the loudest cheers of the night from the Staples Center crowd of 18,997. Jordan left the game for good a few seconds later. Jackson coached the Jordan-led Chicago Bulls to six championships in an eight-year span before both left that team in 1998. Jackson took a year off before becoming coach of the Lakers, and Jordan ended his retirement this season.

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The Side Effect Of Hard Work Is Health - Steve Hess

"The most important thing you have is your machine (your body), the strongest thing you have is your mind. You have to utilise both. But if your body is not working correctly and at optimum performance your health gets to dissipate. So even if you don't have the ability to be a world class NBA player! That's cool, but the progression to great health keeps you healthy, that's the goal. So the side effect of hard work is health! It's a win win." - Steve Hess Denver Nuggets Strength & Conditioning Coach

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Chase Adams is the truth. Silky smooth handles and great court vision. Chase is going to be a really good player if he continues to develop and remains humble.

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Can Drinking Cold Water Improve Performance?

By Tim Hutton - 19th Aug 2013

A recent study from the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition has found that drinking cold water as opposed to room temperature water can have a positive influence on players’ performance.

Many players might think that water is simply water, and it makes no difference whether the water comes from a bottle in the fridge or from the dressing room tap. However, this research says otherwise, and encourages the use of cold water, both to improve performance and reduce fatigue.

The study found that during strenuous activity the increase in athletes’ body temperature was delayed by up to 30 minutes when drinking cold water (4.4°C) as opposed to 15 minutes when drinking room temperature water (22°C).

The Study: To find these results the researchers asked 45 physically fit adult males to take part in two 60-minute exercise sessions. The subjects consumed either cold (4°C) or room temperature (22°C). Core temperature was then measured every 15 minutes, before three performance tests were performed after the exercise session. These tests were bench press to fatigue, standing broad jump and bicycle time to exhaustion.

During the study, it was found that those who drank cold water could delay the rise in body temperature by at least 30 minutes, as opposed to 15 minutes when room temperature water was drank. It was also found that performance improved for 49% and 51% of the participants in the broad jump and bicycle performance tests.

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Pick up ball! Watch out for these characters! Everyone knows one. Lol.

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Come along and show your support for the legacy of one of the greatest coaches in the UK, Joe White. This Sat 24th Aug. Book your tickets on Eventbrite.

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London Rec Basketball - new initiative supported by England Basketball  for those of you who want to play regular competitive basketball! But can't follow commit to playing for a team due to commitment required and busy lifestyles.