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The Basketball Podcast: EP400 with Chris Oliver Reflecting on 400 Episodes
In this week’s basketball coaching conversation, Basketball Immersion founder Chris Oliver joins the Basketball Podcast to reflect on 400 episodes of the podcast.
The Basketball Podcast, hosted by Chris Oliver, has reached an incredible milestone: 400 episodes since its launch on May 28, 2018. Listened to by coaches at every level — from NBA head coaches to youth coaches — and in more than 85 countries worldwide, the show has become a trusted source of evidence‑based insights, practical strategies, and thought‑provoking conversations that shape the way the game is taught and played.
In this special episode, Chris reflects on the journey by sharing memorable quotes and key takeaways from many of the guests who have helped define the podcast’s legacy. The very first guest, Dave Paulsen (now head coach at Holy Cross), set the tone with a line that continues to resonate: “The game has to look like our practice, and not their practice.” That philosophy — making practice representative of the game — has guided countless coaches and remains a cornerstone of the show’s mission.
Whether you’ve tuned in for one episode or all 400, this celebration is a thank‑you to the global coaching community for learning, growing, and sharing the game together.
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Chris Oliver Quotes:
“If your practices are representative of your games and how you play, players will carry those behaviors into games and the games will reflect your philosophy rather than your opponent’s philosophy.”
“I’m so grateful and forever thankful for my wife Jen. She’s one of the main reasons why this podcast exists. She pushed and challenged me to be able to start a podcast because originally when I started Basketball Immersion in 2014 there was no podcast and she was the one that was pushing me saying that you’ve got to share more and you’ve got to do a podcast.”
“Reconnections are a huge part of my teaching philosophy that we outline extensively in the Basketball Immersion community as one of our teaching methods. But I wanted to reconnect you with so many of the brilliant things that have been said on the podcast and some of the things that have been meaningful for me.”
“Boston Celtics head coach, Joe Mazzulla. He said we broke down simplified principles of play. You’re only doing four things within a game, either attacking, you’re transitioning to defend, you’re defending or you’re transitioning to attack. And I tried to keep everything in those four categories.”
Quoting Coach Phil Pressey: “Coaches are teachers. So, learning how to teach has been a great challenge for me, but that’s something that I bought into. It’s going to be new for a lot of people that go into coaching, especially former players.”
“We’re trying to share authentically what coaches do authentically, things that work, the practical side of things. And some of the things that I share are sometimes challenging for people . . we want you to invest in your learning.”
“When you’re uncomfortable, that’s when learning happens. And you don’t have to be uncomfortable all the time. Just like a player, we want them to be uncomfortable sometimes in practice when they’re learning and trying to grow. But when it comes to games, we want them to be comfortable.”
“I’ve got to be very intentional to be able to help my players understand the game and not just from the perspective of practice, but also how they watch and consume games.”
“Practice doesn’t end when practice ends . . practice ends after you’ve spoken to all the kids that you were hard on that day or struggled that day. This concept of aftercare . . psychologically one of the most important parts of that is, what do I do for those players after I’m not coaching them?”
“Doug Novak shared this concept that’s always stuck with me, and that’s this concept of being relentlessly patient, teaching regardless of the results. The reason that you’re here in the first place is to help people get better, enjoy the experience. Now, winning does help people enjoy this experience, but you can’t get there right away sometimes.”
“The closest thing to a shortcut in coaching is having the right mentors.”
“One of the goals of all of us, as coaches, is to be able to foster independence in our players. Independent performers, independent learners.”
Beno Udrih said, “When you’re coming off the bench, I think you should be focusing on, ‘Okay, I’m going into the game and we’re tied. I’m coming out of the game and we’re plus four. I think it’s very important to look at that plus minus when you’re a backup player.”
“I’ve really tried to help players that are on the bench to understand . . impact. We’re down 10, you’re going in the game. Let’s give us some impact. And often players have felt, in debriefs and times that we’ve had those end of season conversations, that those are some of the best things, those actionable things.”
“’We need more creative players and we’re dying for creative players that can create scoring opportunities by making good decisions. Then you go to practice and how often do you let an athlete make a decision?’ That’s Rob Gray’s quote.”
“The hard part about coaching is holding people accountable . . you teach something and then you hold them accountable to it. And I still see so many coaches giving such great information to players in a drill or in a practice situation, but then when they start playing, there’s no intent to hold them accountable to doing those things.”
“Often, we hold kids back because we project onto them our perspective on what is right for them and what they should be doing. And sometimes, certainly our expertise and our knowledge and our experiential knowledge, we can be the person that obviously tells them that this is the best thing for them. But I think we do it too much and I think we don’t do it in the right way.”
“He [Don Meyer] was providing a blueprint for me in terms of ways to be able to share all the things that I’ve learned, being a lifelong learner. And really, that’s a basketball podcast. Basketball immersion has become a platform for lifelong sharing and lifelong learning for me. Thank you again, everyone, for being a part of it. But Sundance’s quote I love here, ‘The art here is understanding that you can scale simplicity. You can’t scale complexity.’”
“I’m certainly a conceptual coach, but I absolutely am obsessive about BLOBs, SLOBs and ATOs and being efficient and effective in those areas. I’ve said this many times, especially to youth coaches, but if you’re coaching a youth team, man, you’ve got to spend a lot of time on inbound, baseline inbound. If you can score on baseline inbound, some games, especially when you’re talking youth 14 and below, in some games, those can end up being half your points.”
“Coaches like Matt Painter keep highlighting the fact that the best players or the most mentally tough, disciplined players, they’re really just doing simple things over and over again. And that’s really it.”
“Thank you for all you do. If you’ve listened to the podcast over the years, here’s a few simple ways to help me out. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a five-star review, it helps more coaches discover the show. Share your favorite episode with a friend, teammate, or fellow coach. Give us a shout out on social media, tag us and let us know what’s resonating with you.”
Chris Oliver Breakdown:
Chris Oliver Selected Links from the Podcast:
Chris Oliver
Deb Peterson
Mark Jablonski
Marwan Elrakabawy
Jen Oliver
Presley Oliver
Kennedy Oliver
Joe Mazzulla
Dave Smart
Fran Fraschilla
Lynne Roberts
Darko Rajakovic
Nate Oats
Brandon Payne
Cori Close
Jim Larranaga
Josh Merkel
Noah LaRoche
Max Lefevre
Kellie Harper
Francesco Nanni
Bryce Tully
Dennis Gates
Phil Pressey
Matt Cline
Andrea Trinchieri
Doug Novak
Ettore Messina
Dusty May
Phil Martelli
Lennie Acuff
Larry Shyatt
Howard Stern
Matt Driscoll
Del Harris
Charles Klask
Stan VanGundy
Beno Udrih
Rob Gray
Gayle Fulks
Jim Crutchfield
Brad Stevens
Ryan Pannone
Janet Butler
Lisa Stockton
Bridgette Mitchell
Doshia Woods
Eric Musselman
Tim Martin
Victor Wembanyama
Tyrese Maxey
Steph Curry
Victor Lapena
Aaron Fearne
Jota Cuspinera
Dustin Kerns
Doug Lemov
Sandy Brondello
Scott Harmatuk
Sundance Wicks
Steve Smiley
Don Meyer
Matt Driscoll
Gary Williams
Tobin Anderson
Rob Senderoff
Jerrod Calhoun
Carly Thibault-DuDonis
Juli Fulks
Yolett McPhee-McCuin
Shawn Dennis
Dave Love
Joe Crispin
Derek Fisher
T.J. Saint
Matt Painter
Sherri Coale
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