Follow the Leader

Stupid people won't follow intelligent people. Lazy people won't follow motivated people. This logic was presented to me by Flash when I asked him to lead the first year students the right way as a second year player.

One of the things I've been proud of as the coach here has been the academic performance of my players over the years. During my first season, the team had a cumulative 2.5 GPA. The following year, the group compiled a 2.9 GPA. In two seasons only two players failed to meet the eligibility requirement to play during second semester.

The common denominator between those two teams was that most guys in the starting line-up had a GPA over a 2.5. When your best players are doing well academically, people follow suit. Flash, on the other hand, saw this differently when we discussed his role as leader at the beginning of my third year as Head Coach.

Me: My first year as coach, 2 out of 17 guys failed off the team. Do you know why?
Flash: why?
Me: The leading scorer had a 3.7 GPA and he was the coolest mothafucka on the team.
Flash: Yeh??
Me: Dudes who never got good grades were trying to do well because he made it a cool thing to do well academically, kind of like how Cam'ron made pink acceptable in the hood.
Flash: See. I disagree wit dat...
Me: What do you mean?
Flash: Lemme explain it to you like dis, coach. See. If you talk or dress a certain way in da hood, people will look at you like youz a sucka.
Me: I realize that.
Flash: Hold up. So if you tryin to straighten out a kid in da hood, you gotta dress n talk like him to get to him.
Me: Okay...
Flash: Aiight, so my point is that if you want me to get these first year players to act right you gotta let me act like them so I can gain their respect.
Me: That doesn't make any fuckin sense. Are you kidding me right now? You're gonna dumb yourself down so they could listen to you?
Flash: I'm tryna tell you, Coach. Nig, I mean guys, ain't listenin to somebody they think is a sucka!
Me: So how was I able to reach you then?
Flash: Cuz I ain't like those guys. I know how to play da game.

At the end of first semester, our cumulative team GPA was a 1.9 and four guys failed off the team.