The court of an NBA play-off game between the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks is not where you would normally expect to see a Premier League manager.
But as the television cameras turned to Sixers head coach Nick Nurse, viewers could see over his right shoulder Oliver Glasner, the Crystal Palace manager, alongside his chairman Steve Parish and his fellow general partner Josh Harris, also a co-owner of the Sixers. .
Glasner’s trip to Philadelphia had a practical reason. Palace are now ramping up their preparations for next season after securing the Premier League, so the opportunity to speak face to face with Parish, Harris and fellow Sixers owner David Blitzer will have been useful.
But the Austrian will also have relished the opportunity to visit the Wells Fargo Center, given his keen interest in the NBA – which he has followed since his youth – and his “intrinsic motivation” to improve.
Glasner is ambitious, eager to learn and gain knowledge in any way possible – an attitude evident in his work in his native Germany and now with Palace, where he made a promising start to his career in Premier League.
“We were Chicago Bulls fans – he’s a big NBA fan,” says Roland Hofpointer, a longtime friend of Glasner’s who still lives in their childhood village of Riedau. Athleticism.
Hofpointer recalls their admiration for Michael Jordan, the superstar who dominated basketball in the 1990s. But it was Steve Kerr, Jordan’s former Bulls teammate, now head coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors based in San Francisco and himself a big football fan, from whom Glasner seems to have taken further inspiration. He spent a week with the franchise in November studying their operation, including Kerr’s coaching techniques.
Hofpointer is keen to point out that Glasner’s interest in basketball did not influence his early years in management – “Maybe now, since he was in San Francisco watching the Golden State Warriors,” says – it – but no one can dispute the 49 years of experience. the desire to learn from older people. He earned a degree in business administration while still playing in Austria and admits he has a constant curiosity.
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“I tried to educate myself in different areas, continue to exchange ideas, including with other sports,” Glasner said. “I was with the Golden State Warriors NBA team to gain experience. With other sports, you may be able to take one or two things with you.
Palace players were struck by Glasner’s attention to detail and his willingness to clearly demonstrate what he expects of them. This way, Glasner believes he can better convince them that improving is not only in the team’s best interest but also in their own.
That time spent with the Warriors and Kerr – who has previously spoken of his admiration for Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp – and watching basketball when he managed Eintracht Frankfurt has been rewarding for Glasner. This appears to have had a greater influence on his approach to man management than his tactics, but he would not be the first football manager to draw strategic inspiration from the sport.
“The way you turn based on where the ball is and where the basket is is very similar,” said Gus Poyet, the former Sunderland manager whose father was an Olympic basketball player for Argentina, in 2015. “You score in front of the player and the ball and it’s the same in basketball.
“You never see a basketball player running towards his own basket to score without looking over his shoulder. These little things help you because you have to score in a certain way. Some movements become natural.
“The analysis is similar. You use your strengths and look for their weaknesses, look to isolate a player.
Similarly, Joe Mazzulla, head coach of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, said Athleticism in February, how Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola had influenced him and the importance of transition between phases of play in both sports.
“Everyone tries to split the basketball into offense and defense, but it’s only one game,” Mazzulla said. “It’s your spacing, your decision-making and your shot selection, and then it’s your transition defense.
“Where basketball and football are the same, the transition happens so quickly. You can be on offense and two seconds later you can be on defense. The game is therefore constantly evolving.
Loran Vrielink, a former professional basketball player in the Netherlands whose company Tactalyse works with footballers on individual tactics, believes it is essential to focus on individuals.
“There’s a lot of superiority and inferiority in one-on-one and two-on-two,” he says. “Every aspect of the team and the individual is the same, maybe the execution is different because it’s hands versus feet, but I use a lot of basketball things in the soccer.
“Football has always been a team sport, but we view basketball as an individual sport, which is why we have different coaches in basketball. The number of players means that individual attention is doubled in basketball. If you have more individual coaches, you can develop more on an individual level. Basketball is more advanced than football in terms of knowledge and tactical decision-making.
“The culture of basketball is not comparable to that of football. You need to spend more time on the individual.
It’s an analysis Glasner picked out as something basketball does well, while his commitment to improving individuals may also have seeped into his consciousness over time.
“There are three or four very interesting points (that I took away),” he said of his time in San Francisco. “Basketball is different, but the individual development and training is much higher than in football. They have three player development coaches, the coaching staff is almost (a ratio of) one player to one coach.
“They analyze the player on video with individual sessions but also go on the field and train with him one-on-one. With 26-27 players, we would need 27 coaches to achieve this.
Glasner’s coaching staff did not extend that far at Palace, but he brought a team of five with him to Palace to complement the two – Paddy McCarthy and Dean Kiely – who remained after Roy’s departure Hodgson. This has surely allowed for a greater focus on individuals, with most of its coaches also having specialist areas of expertise such as defending or set pieces.
There are other crossovers between basketball and soccer: Golden State, for example, took inspiration from Barcelona’s tiki-taka style under Guardiola.
At Palace, there have been signs of a shift towards something closer. Their opening goal in the 2-0 win over Newcastle United last week was evidence of short, crisp interplay and one-touch passing – in this case between Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew.
But Glasner’s system is based above all on efficiency. It’s a term he uses frequently and his team uses certain triggers to press the opposition at the opportune moment and play high up the pitch, rather than with intense, all-out pressing.
Glasner previously dismissed any suggestion that he might be looking to learn more about the 76ers, although he did hint that it might interest him in the future.
“Not at the moment, but it’s always important to not just watch football,” he said. “You don’t have a lot of time to think about different sports and situations (as a football coach). I like meeting people in other sports. You can learn from everyone.
“It’s about leadership, organization and a big world that is becoming more and more important for mental health care. It’s important for the players and the staff. I try to develop myself to learn every day. It helps you but also keeps you young.
Basketball seems to be an important part of his life and although the crossover is mostly incidental, there are similarities in the way he approaches management.
From SV Ried to Wolfsburg, then Eintracht Frankfurt and now Palace, Glasner has shown a willingness to improve. Palace already seems to be reaping the rewards.
(Top photos: Getty Images)