QUIZ: HOW ARE YOU HANDLING IT?

This quiz is a companion to MIND GAMES: Build The Mindset Of A Basketball Champion Chapter 11: Dealing With Difficult Teammates & Coaches

Every basketball player eventually has to deal with difficult personalities.

A teammate who tests your patience.

A coach who criticizes you.

Someone who brings negativity to the locker room.

A situation unrelated to the team.

The question isn’t whether you will face these situations; it’s how you will handle them.

Chapter 11 of MIND GAMES is about navigating difficult teammates and coaches without letting those relationships take you away from what you can control: your effort, your attitude, your communication, and your response.

QUIZ: How Are You Handling It?

1. When someone on your team is testing you, your response is:

A) Stay quiet and hope it blows over

B) Vent to someone else about it

C) Match their tone, get frustrated in return

D) Address it directly, focused on the team goal

2. After a heated moment with a teammate/coach, you:

A) Avoid them for the rest of practice / game

B) Talk to everyone except them

C) Let it show in how you play or talk

D) Let it go and focus on your game

3. If a coach criticizes you hard, your reaction is

A) “Why bother?”

B) “Everyone is going to see or hear about this”

C) “That’s not fair,” and your body language shows it

D) “What can I actually fix here?”

4. Your go-to response to conflict is:

A) Silence

B) Side Conversations

C) Heated Reaction

D) Direct Conversation

5. Your teammates would describe how you handle friction as:

A) Checked out, don’t pay any attention to it

B) Always complaining to someone about it

C) Hot-Headed Response

D) Steady

6. When the situation is finally over, you feel:

A) Relieved it’s over, but nothing really changed

B) Still frustrated and annoyed, and everyone knows it

C) Embarrassed by how you reacted

D) Confident that you handled it correctly

YOUR RESULTS

Mostly A: The Avoider

Silence can feel safer, but it doesn’t always fix the problem.

If you’ve been sitting on something, pick one issue you’ve been avoiding and address it directly with the person.

Mostly B: The Venter

Everyone knows what’s bothering you except the person who actually needs to hear it.

Venting can feel like you’re doing something about the problem, but sometimes it’s just delaying the conversation you need to have.

Mostly C: The Reactor

Matching someone’s energy usually makes the situation bigger, not better.

Some of the greatest players in basketball history have played alongside difficult personalities. Shaq and Kobe didn’t always see things the same way, but success still required learning how to work together.

You can’t control someone else’s effort, attitude, or behavior, but you can control yours.

Mostly D: The Leader

You understand something important:

You don’t have to control everyone else to control how you show up.

You focus on your effort, your attitude, your language, and your ability to communicate directly.

That’s leadership.

ONE LAST QUESTION

The next time a teammate or coach gets under your skin, what response will you choose?

Avoid it?

Vent about it?

React to it?

Or handle it?

That’s where the mental game shows up.