Rise Above When You Don’t Get The Role You Want

Before Scottie Pippen became a six-time NBA champion alongside Michael Jordan, he had a job most basketball players wouldn’t exactly dream about…

Team manager.

That’s right. Pippen arrived at the University of Central Arkansas with little hype and no basketball scholarship. He enrolled through a work-study program, helped with equipment and towels, and walked onto the basketball team.

His coach, Don Dyer, didn’t initially see an NBA superstar. What impressed him was something much simpler: Pippen would work, listen, and learn.

Eventually, a scholarship became available and Pippen earned it.

As a freshman, he averaged just 4.3 points per game in limited action but four years later, he was the #5 pick in the NBA Draft.

Pippen obviously didn’t decide that being a team manager or little-used freshman was the role he wanted forever. He continued working, developing, and preparing for something bigger.

But there’s an important distinction between accepting where you are and accepting that you’ll always stay there.

That’s a lesson almost every basketball player eventually has to learn.

You don’t have to be satisfied with your current role to fully embrace it.

Being hungry for more is healthy. You should want to improve. You should want more responsibility. You should want to become the kind of player your coach trusts in the biggest moments.

The problem begins when the role you want prevents you from embracing the role your team needs from you right now.

PGC Basketball Director and Washington University Women’s Assistant Coach, Carter Oesterling, recently demonstrated this beautifully with his team.

Before the season started, Coach Cater asked every player to privately answer three questions:

Will you start this year? How many minutes will you average? And how many points will you average?

Then he collected their answers and did the math.

There are five starting positions. His players collectively expected nine starters.

There are also exactly 200 player-minutes available in a 40-minute college basketball game, yet his players expected 300 minutes.

And when Carter added everyone’s scoring expectations together?

157 points per game.

Apparently, they were preparing to become one of the greatest offensive teams in college basketball history.

Of course, Carter’s players weren’t being ridiculous. They were simply demonstrating something very human:

Almost everybody wants more than they currently have.

Players nine through fourteen want to play. Players six through eight want to start. Players four and five want more shots. Players two and three want to be the best player on the team. And the best player may already be thinking about the next level.

There’s almost always another role to want.

Which means role acceptance isn’t just a lesson for the kid at the end of the bench.

It’s a lesson for everybody.

WATCH: Star In Your Role

PGC Director and Washington University college coach Carter Oesterling shares the exercise his team used to confront expectations around starting, minutes and scoring—and explains why embracing your current role doesn’t mean giving up on a bigger one.

Dick DeVenzio understood this problem decades ago.

In STUFF Good Players Should Know, Dick wrote about bench-warming and the importance of honestly understanding your situation. If you’re truly in a dead-end situation with no opportunity to develop, that’s worth evaluating.

But if you’re paying your dues and there’s a legitimate opportunity ahead of you, then pay those dues all the way.

Don’t physically stay on the team while mentally checking out.
Don’t practice halfway because you aren’t getting the minutes you think you deserve. Don’t stop celebrating teammates who play your position. Don’t disconnect from the game while sitting on the bench.

Instead, become exceptionally good at the role you have.

If you’re playing six minutes, become the best six-minute player your team could possibly have. If your job is defending the opponent’s best guard, take enormous pride in it. If you aren’t playing, know the scouting report, study the game, encourage your teammates, and prepare as if your opportunity could arrive on the next possession.

Because eventually, it might.

Every program has a player who was buried on the depth chart in October and playing meaningful minutes by February. When that opportunity arrives, the question becomes whether you’ve spent the previous four months preparing or resenting.

That’s why owning your role doesn’t mean surrendering your ambition.

It means being mature enough to say two things at once:

“I want more.”

And…

“Until I earn more, I’m going to be exceptional at what my team needs from me today.”

In many cases, the second statement is exactly how you eventually earn the first.

For Players

Carter ended his lesson with two questions worth writing down:

What is my role on my team right now?

How can I shine in that role and make everyone around me better?

Don’t answer with the role you wish you had. Start with the one you actually have.

Then attack it.

For Coaches

Make roles clear. When a player wants more, don’t automatically treat ambition as selfishness. Show them what earning more actually requires.

Clarity creates trust and confidence.

For Parents

When your child doesn’t get the role they hoped for, resist turning the ride home into an investigation of the coach’s playing-time decisions.

Instead, ask:

“How did you help your team with the role you had today?”

You’re not asking your child to abandon ambition. You’re teaching them how to pursue it productively.

Scottie Pippen didn’t remain a team manager.

He didn’t remain a 4.3-point-per-game freshman, either.

He kept preparing himself for a role he hadn’t earned yet.

That’s the challenge for every player this week:

Work for the bigger role. Prepare for the bigger role. Earn the bigger role.

But until it arrives, own the one you have.

Keep THINKING the game,

Mano

More Tips SERIOUS Players Might Enjoy