The Essence of My Coaching Is to Serve: Monty Williams, Faith, and Relationality
Oftentimes, an athletic coach is tasked with establishing a player–coach relationship that is built on trust, commitment, accountability, hard work, and a belief in process. More recently, however, head coach of the Phoenix Suns, Monty Williams, has garnered considerable public attention for adding...
| Published in: | Religions |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
MDPI
2022
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| In: |
Religions
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| Further subjects: | B
Death
B Relationality B Faith B Basketball B Community |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Oftentimes, an athletic coach is tasked with establishing a player–coach relationship that is built on trust, commitment, accountability, hard work, and a belief in process. More recently, however, head coach of the Phoenix Suns, Monty Williams, has garnered considerable public attention for adding faith into that equation. Though faith is primarily considered a theological outlook and expression of spiritual value, it has extended beyond religiosity into his coaching praxis and pedagogy. In the paper, I look to add the voice of Monty Williams to the rich cohort of Black people assembled by Carey Latimore in Unshakable Faith: African American Stories of Redemption, Hope, and Community, a text principally concerned with illuminating the diversity in thought and expression of faith. Additionally, I draw on theories from Black Studies, post-colonial studies, and the sociology of sport to interrogate a particular discursive formulation advanced by Williams—“[…] the essence of my coaching is to serve”. I explore the nature of a faith-based coaching philosophy in the game of basketball and how the notion of coaching as service expresses a dynamic, complex set of religious histories, but also embodies a form of relationality centered on the following question: What does it mean to navigate sociopolitical life and death in community? |
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| ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel13100936 |