Locke coached the Buffalo Braves in the NBA for half a season in 1976-77. Prior to his Buffalo experience, Locke coached for West Point, where he hired a young assistant coach named Bobby Knight. Knight would later replace Locke when Locke left West Point. After West Point, Locke moved onto Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He later coached at Clemson University. Jacksonville University where he took them to an NCAA berth and NIT berth. Locke would later become the head coach at Indiana State University and serve as a scout and assistant General Manager for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Teaching basketball the way it's meant to be played
Published: Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 8:26 p.m.
All you have to do, and this is absolutely the only requirement, is find a spot inside the Rincon Valley Christian gym. That’s it. Tates Locke will take it from there. Do it any day, starting today, for the next six days. Just listen to Locke teach basketball to the kids at Chico Averbuck’s basketball academy.
You don’t have to be a parent of one of the kids, though you could be. You could be a coach, pro, college, high school, YMCA, AAU. It’s open to anyone, either gender, whatever age, whatever level of interest. You don’t have to be connected to any school or know “someone.” Won’t cost you a dime, either. It’s free, utterly free. A free seminar from the guy who gave Bob Knight his first job. A free seminar from the guy who is heavily involved in Nike’s summer pro basketball camps, including LeBron James’.
Bring a notebook. Take notes. Averbuck will.
“Heck, yes, I’ll bring my notebook,” said Averbuck, the El Molino grad who is director of international scouting for the Cleveland Cavaliers and oversees college players on the West Coast.
“He has forgotten more basketball than I’ll ever know. Billy Donovan (Florida’s coach) calls him once a week to pick his brain. Tates gave a coaching clinic last year in Iowa and 1,500 coaches showed up. Considering his credentials, why wouldn’t you come?”
To those who think anything before 2000 was recorded on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Locke may not ring a bell. He is probably not on any ESPN highlight film. Locke’s sensational moves, however, come from how he describes the game, the players’ interaction in it and how it all can fit if five players learn to share one ball.
“The No. 1 teaching tool in any walk of life is repetition,” said Locke, 74, who was with Averbuck in both Portland and Cleveland. “Doesn’t matter if you are learning math, riding a bike, singing a song. If I can make a player understand that repetition is not a form of punishment, I will have done my job. And seventh-, eighth-, ninth-graders are in their prime for learning.”
Locke doesn’t talk in circles. He speaks directly, clearly, not promising anyone anything other than this: If you listen, you will learn. Seventh-, eighth-, ninth-graders might be in their prime for learning, but they also are in their prime to be influenced by pie-in-the-sky dreams.
“AAU is such a deterrent to teaching,” said Locke, referring to the emphasis on showcasing skills, with college scholarships being the carrot at the end of the stick, as opposed to learning the game. “Parents have bought into it. The high school coach has a lot on his plate because of it.”
Locke will place a strong emphasis on learning but not at the expense of having fun. He knows he is teaching kids who need basketball for what it is, a sport, not an obsessed career choice at age 10.
“I’ll sit down with them,” said Locke, who will work with four individual groups numbering 110 total kids, “and I will tell them, ‘You don’t know me and I don’t know you. But after six days we’ll know each other. We are going to laugh and we may even cry but we are going to have fun.’”
Why, Locke was asked, is he still doing this? And he’s doing this for nothing, a nod at his friendship with Averbuck. Why run around with kids who could be his great-grandchildren? His goal is so altruistic, it may seem absurd in this day in which money is more valued than substance.
“If I leave Santa Rosa exhausted,” Locke said, “I will feel fulfilled at what I set out to do.”
Which is: A mind is a terrible thing to waste on the basketball court.
For more North Bay sports go to padecky.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5223 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.
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