Jay Triano on Coaching Greatness and Cultivating Mindset

Jay Triano is a Canadian basketball coach and former professional player, who is currently the lead assistant coach of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He previously served as the head coach of the NBA's Toronto Raptors and the interim head coach of the Phoenix Suns. A former Canadian national team player who competed in two Olympics, he has also had two stints as head coach of the national team.

In this episode, we discuss the mental part of the game (6:45), things that helped Jay perform as a player from a sport psychology standpoint (8:45), what his childhood was like growing up with his dad as a basketball coach (10:55), the relationship between coaching and sport psychology (13:45), what made Steve Nash special (17:13), where Steve’s belief that he belonged in the NBA came from (22:55), why Jay didn’t wind up being a hockey player (24:00), why he thinks Canada has fallen in love with basketball (25:06), his own basketball journey (26:54), how he went from being a towel-waver to the Canadian National Team’s leading scorer in one year (32:20), if there’s anything he would do on gameday to make sure he had a fearless mind (38:20), the difference between preparation and performance (41:50), what he and his brother had in common playing sports at the professional level (43:34), when he knew he wanted to become a coach (44:55), his transition from college basketball to the pros (46:20), the differences between being an assistant with the US national team and the head coach of the Canadian national team (48:35), what attributes make up a hall-of-fame head coach (50:48) and if those differ from the attributes that make up a hall-of-fame player (51:45), what it was like going from an assistant coach to a head coach in the NBA (52:45), what it was like playing football for a year (54:43), what his basketball coach’s reaction to him going to play football was (56:30), what his tattoos represent and mean to him (59:36), favorite songs (1:04:28), why he wrote his book “Open Look” (1:07:00), and why he thinks Canadians are so proud to be Canadian (1:08:17).

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that will be coming out in October 2020, and you can pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian