Mikhail Prokhorov’s Brooklyn Bridge Project Publishes Book For Basketball Coaches

The Brooklyn Bridge project recently translated Morgan and Joe Wootten’s Coaching Basketball Successfully into Russian, presenting the book on October 11 at the Russia – Sports Power forum.

Coaching Basketball Successfully provides a comprehensive look at coaching young players. The book includes tips on coaching defense and offense, as well as building a successful program, developing a strategy and evaluating results, building and managing a coaching staff, finding resources for development, and engaging with parents.

Morgan Wootten is one of America’s most respected basketball coaches and head coach of DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, Maryland) for 46 years. More than 160 of Wootten’s players went on to play collegiate basketball and dozens have made the NBA, including Kenny Carr, Danny Ferry, Adrian Dantley, and Keith Bogans. Wootten was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and retired from coaching in 2002.

The book’s 3rd edition was released in 2013 and features new insight from his son Joe Wootten on the latest trends in coaching. Joe Wootten was an assistant coach at DeMatha and is currently head coach of Bishop O’Connell High School in Virginia.

Each book will include a gift from Brooklyn Bridge, a coach’s whiteboard.

The Brooklyn Bridge is providing the books and whiteboards free of charge to organizations involved in developing youth basketball: Russian Basketball Federation (RBF), KES-Basket, Lokobasket, and the Association of Student Basketball.

Sergei Ivanov, RBF board of trustees chairman and VTB United League honorary president:
– For thousands of coaches around the world, Coaching Basketball Successfully has been a terrific guide and source of help. Not surprisingly, it’s known in the corporate world as “the best book written by a coach, for other coaches.” At the same time, I want to note that Coaching Basketball Successfully does more than just discuss Wootten’s coaching career and practice methods–it also provides personal reflections on dealing with problems, including off-the-court issues. Coaches, I’m confident that this new edition, which is available thanks to the Brooklyn Bridge project and support of the RBF board of trustees, will answer many of your questions and help you gain new insight into your challenging line of work.

Morgan and Joe Wootten, book authors:
– We are happy that the Brooklyn Bridge project chose our book Coaching Basketball Successfully to translate into Russian and distribute among Russian coaches. It’s a big honor for us. We hope that it will be helpful to coaches who are building their programs and who have an influence on the lives of the young people on their teams. We believe that basketball is a wonderful environment that can teach our young people the most important life lessons. We are grateful to everyone who shares our convictions and chooses this career path, dedicating themselves to their team and players.

Mikhail Prokhorov, Brooklyn Nets owner and RBF board of trustees member:
– We specifically chose this book because the authors managed to present a unique combination of methods, practical, applied knowledge, and philosophy, as well as devoting enormous attention to a coach’s self-education. The book will be very useful to both beginning and experienced coaches.

Sergey Kushchenko, RBF board of trustees member and VTB United League president:
– This guide will be especially useful to coaches taking their first steps in the profession. But absolutely everyone can learn something from the approach and method of these successful coaches and their experience with 14-18-year-old players. Most of the conclusions and advice in this book apply to everyone and can be used in all types of situations. The authors don’t just describe their coaching philosophy, they also challenge readers to develop their own approach and never stop growing.