By Gabriel Esparza | August 10, 2026
Everyone wishes to be successful. Most, however, focus on the results rather than the actual effort that is required in order to achieve the desired outcome.
While speaking on the Coaching U Podcast, as shared on X by Coach AJ Mental Fitness, coach Billy Donovan recounted a time when he asked his team managers at Florida to track how long the ball was in his players’ possession.
To be clear as to what this means, he was logging the duration of the physical ball itself in the hands of those on the court while playing.
Before revealing the results, he asked the guards to estimate what percentage of the game they actually had possession of.
As it turns out, guesses of around half of the time spent on their court were drastically overvalued.
Instead, for all players, whether a frontcourt or backcourt player, the ball was in their hands for less than 10% of the time. This means that in 90% of the game, the vast majority of a game, one is on the court as an active or passive bystander.
This can be somewhat mind-boggling for players, but it shows two important aspects.
For one, people tend to overemphasize and highlight their role in any activity within their own minds. In reality, a lot more tends to go on without our direct involvement than what we’d like to admit.
Secondly, the public at large tends to value and take notice of the items that ‘look good,’ without acknowledging or appreciating the work that goes into actually producing something.
Most of the time one is on the court, there is a chance to set a screen, position oneself for a rebound, make a cut, better position oneself defensively, etc.
It is in these activities that the winning and team spirit truly occur.
For those who believe these items warrant less attention due to the nature of their lack of attention, they are likely to see results that come inconsistently and not at the desired level of success.
What one does for over 90% of the time, when there is not necessarily glory to be had, is what truly determines success or failure.
