Allen Iverson, Coach Alicia Komaki: We’re Talking About Practice?

14 years ago the legend Allen Iverson put on a press conference for the ages, explaining to befuddled reporters why he missed 76er’s practice.

“We’re taking about practice, what’s the big deal?,” he seemed to say like 20,000 times.

AI has this philosophy, “Practice is not the game, the game is at the arena. I will die for the actual game, I’ll play every game like it’s my last.”

So to understand this story you should peep the hilarious AI clip, you’ll laugh your butt off when seeing AI say, “How the hell can I make my teammates better by practicing?”

AI had that undeniable heart, skill, swag, crossover supreme. Dude’s the epitome of a legend.

But this story is 110% Alicia Komaki, the ever dope Sierra Canyon girl’s prep coach.

She’s been grinding for 17 years as a prep coach and is someone who can make teammates better by practicing.

Who’s the best coach that ever ran a practice? Some might give it to the Bruin’s John Wooden maybe? A-Komaki follows that methodical path of how Wooden operated, pyramid and all.

The exquisite architecture of her brain reminds me of my guy Steve Lavin, dope former UCLA coach. Lav and I were tight and spent some good time together, we were about to write a book together on past Bruin glory. (Click here for a Californiapreps.com story I did on him)

Point is, Alicia is straight up as smart as coach Steve is. Prove it E-Woods you say, where’s exhibit A, you say? View Komaki’s website (http://Sportsdrillbank.com) and also peep the YouTube vid.

Start watching the vid below at the six-minute mark.

You haven’t seen crazy organized until you’ve seen this vid that show so much on improving your practices. Nah, I bet you’re too scurrrred to see her video, don’t watch it.

Some people I know have tried to marginalize A-Komaki.

Those jealous small minded people dismiss Komaki saying she’s too Asian to be fully respected as the best prep coach in America.

I've heard ignorant people in the stands while she’s coaching say she’s “Too much a woman to be taken that seriously.” Yeah, don’t peep this jaw dropping vid.

Better yet, don’t go see her coach. Who wants to see a coach draw up plays like Chuck D and Public Enemy used to rap. A-Komaki is that rebel without a pause.

In game she’ll throw it down your throat like Barkley fosho, don't peep her coaching in action.

When SLAM picked me up to write for them in 2005 I was running content and lacing up players for coach Roy at UNC. I used to say, is it the shoes money, MJ is it the shoes?

No silly rabbit, what makes A-Komaki (who is an assistant AD and dope 7th grade teacher on campus) is her humility. It’s more than she’s a self professed follower of Christ, with all her heart. Komaki? SHE CARES.

What must be known about A-Komaki is 1st and foremost, she loves people.

What makes Alicia an elite young and budding legend coach? I’ll never make the mistake of trying to call her a legend to her face, I tried to call the Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight a legend, I love his coaching. My guy G, he politely laughed at that suggestion.

The best coaches are the most humble, they never see themselves as a legend.

Why do great kids choose to play for Alicia? It’s not the national title coach Komaki won at a younger than any other national prep coach in history, it’s not Alicia’s oh so many Cali state titles that draw kids play for her.

It’s that she treats people right, she respects you enough to push you past anything you ever imagined possible, like a navy seal level to be sure.

Love or hate her, A-Money should have a Nike shirt that says Most Hated like my guy Josh Christopher. Many are jealous of her but a case deserves to be made why Alicia Komaki is to the prep ranks what Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is to college basketball.

Di... di... did E-Woods just say that? Dang skippy right I did. Coach K of Sierra Canyon got it like a young coach K of Duke.

Huh, you say? Think about it. Coach K at Duke had about the same amount of star players concentrically in his first decade of head coaching leadership. Both he and coach Komaki have coached for Team USA. Not many can say that, right?

I remember pretty early in Coach Krzyzewski’s career he was asked by the Lakers to be their coach but he loved where he was at.

Where would coach Komaki be best used if not at SC? Me personally, I always figured Coach A-Komaki would be the perfect assistant for Coach Mark Trakh at USC. He was her coach at Pepperdine after all.

Why? She’d be that secret weapon to pull the Trojans even with the Bruins. It’s been a little, ummmm, uneven lately, feel me?

But Alicia seems so immersed in the youngsters’ lives at SC, she loves helping them realize their human potential at that stage in their lives.

I’ve talked to like 50 kids that played for Alicia, dopest kids ever like Ryann Payne, Lexi Griggsby, and Duke’s Vanessa De Jesus. They all tell me Komaki is tough, but super dope.

Me, E-Woods? I’d want Komaki to coach my own daughter Giselle fosho. 100.

Alicia was coached by that uber coach for the ages Kevin Kiernan at Troy in the late 90s.

A-Komaki has always told me that coach Kevin “Is the best!”

So please don’t just read Kevin’s quote on Komaki, please feel his assessment of his former star: “Alicia is awesome. Ever since she was a freshman playing on varsity for me she always had a great basketball IQ and an eye for details.

"As a coach she is one of the smartest in the business. She has unlimited potential and can go as far as she wants to.”

#Drop the mic time

What stands out to me most about Komaki is her utter dedication to the constant pursuit of life-long learning. She has a million quotes she uses from great minds like Dean Smith, Brad Stevens, etc. This translates into her having reflectivity and vast wisdom. She’s constantly challenging herself to level up.

Komaki cares, she and her awesome staff are constantly asking players via a confidential survey, how are we doing? She’s always asking the kids to give her real feedback. For example, she thinks about the true nature of discipline vs. punishment in running a practice.

She wants everyone to feel invested and to have it be a real fam unit as a squad. Some players will tell the staff to please be less long-winded. Everyone has a voice, that’s so rare.

Players are stakeholders, and often request more action in practice. Coach K adjusts for that in her ever dope circle graph of practice planning.

Why this story E-Woods? Alicia, she never gets enough credit. I hear complaining parents, ones that are crazy with a capital C, say she’s not approachable. I hear ignorant other coaches say she just recruits to win. Hah!

Can you handle the real truth? I’ve never seen a coach less inclined to recruit. Alicia only wants players who totally want to be at SC, ones that give it their all. Ones that can grind, expand their mind, and are into being fam.

Example? Last year a top ten 6-4 junior guard in LA that could dunk wanted at SC, an awesome girl who was a brainiac, offered by UCONN as an 8th grader. But she couldn’t find transpo. Did Alicia coddle, bend her ethos? No.

Why, do you think? A-Komaki has principles in a world lacking them. I know of other powerhouse girls on open division teams that have a booster-funded slush fund, money used to transpo their transcendent stars from house to campus.

Not Komaki, she is in a word principled, she is different.

This year, another transcendent soph guard, think the Asian version of Brandon Jennings, wanted in from another LA school. Again no transpo, it didn’t happen. Point is, transcendent players want in at SC. 100.

Wait, I’ve got even another example to illustrate the point. The best junior guard in all America, ranked top #5 nationally, think a lil Iverson version was all set to transfer to SC, totally loves Komaki. If the Covid-19 housing market had allowed her family’s house to sell, she’d be there right now. It’s like that.

That’s 3 guards for the ages that all might’ve landed at SC in 20-21.

Many prep players see greatness in the school’s education and athletic opportunities but what I love, what many love is that Komaki will be happy to work with whoever she has. All she requires to be happy is have players that work really, really hard.

She doesn’t coddle, she just nurtures, she just reloads through skill acquisition. SC does have the ever dope Christy Reynoso freshman phenom ready to be ballin and grindin’ this year.

The ever dope Christy told me, “I’m honored to be a part of Coach Komaki’s program at Sierra Canyon. Coach Komaki has a winning mentality and develops elite players through her mentoring and coaching style. She has a unique style in connecting with her players and I’m looking forward to a great season under Coach Komaki’s leadership.”

Reynoso reminds me of the flashy Skip To My Lou style player Rafer Alston. Whereas Christy could’ve played anywhere in the country, she wants to be at SC. The whole squad is there not just to be taught hoops but to be taught life.

Want hear something crazy?

Some people throw others a surprise party, E-Woods threw a surprise story for Komaki. She didn’t even know this story was releasing but I know she wants many to know how she runs her practices.

Me, E-Woods, I don’t spend my cred unless I believe. I’ve seen Komaki in her office caring for kids, I have my peeps like Rose O from Nigeria that hooped for Komaki. Alicia took care of her as if Rose were her own daughter.100.

Now do you see? Komaki is constantly asking herself if she is favoring one player over another, giving ice to heal the star, and less attention to the 15th player off the bench. How dope is that?

Don’t just take it from me, take it from Kennedy Burke, that sharp WNBA Indiana Fever baller who was a star at UCLA. KB played for Komaki at SC and raves about her old coach she adores.

Feel KB’s words people, “Her practices were no joke. I mean she made sure that everyone was giving 110% and if you weren’t she didn’t like that and she’d call you out. Not only did I see her as a coach, but I saw her as a big sister because that’s how much she cared for us.

“She didn’t care who we were as basketball players, she cared about who you are as a person as well. She easily related to us because she wasn’t that much older than us at the time she became the coach at SC.

“I absolutely adore her and appreciate her because she prepared me for the collegiate level of basketball at UCLA and I will forever be grateful for her.”

#yes ma’am, Alicia impacts lives

Readers ask me why do I write such utterly personal stories about my subjects. no one else writes like that. Yes, my goal is to be impossibly personal in my writing. I’m usually all in when doing a story on a person because I’m seeking The Truth.

Example? To truly know A-Komaki’s life, you must know she was mentored by the biggest Celtics fan ever: Kevin Kiernan, who bleeds green and often references Brad Stevens. Maybe that’s because Coach Kev admired Coach Red, that Celts team-first mentality, their selfless mantra for the ages.

Me? I’m trying to write as well as Alicia and Kevin coach because every time I seek out a Paul Pierce of Celts lore (he let me write his life story in 2005) I see in Double P’s eyes, what I see Kevin’s eyes, in Alicia eyes: that burning desire to compete, an ethos of unmistakable grit, hustle and desire to teach the game.

Pierce, Kiernan, Komaki. They are one and the same to me in terms of giving their all to the game. I can’t compliment them any higher.

So I’m trying to be real as can be with this story, it’s crazy personal for me.

Guess who my next door neighbor was growing up in Ventura? Joe Vaughn, the all time winningest prep girls coach in Cali history. That is until Kev-Kiernan passed him by recently in the all time wins column.

Who’s got next in the all time record list? Maybe Alicia? Who knows. Now you see how personal this is, beyond personal. Let me offer raw the whole truth if we’re being real here, and how many of us ate ever truly real?

When I met A-Komaki 4 years ago, a close fam member of mine had just tried to commit suicide. I was thrown into a bipolar period, mania to be exact, and I said something very disrespectful to Alicia, maybe unforgivable you could say?

But A-Komaki forgave me. She said, “E, you’re better than that.” She got me to live up to my better angels and challenged me to improve. That's the secret of her grace. So ask me how much I think of her?

Let me put into clear perspective just how bad I wish I had met Alicia Komaki when she was growing up.

In 1999, I put tons of time helping Kelly Greathouse get her game up, playing ball and working out with the 6-5 uber forward to be a top 10 prep nationally. Kelly went on to play at NC State and Pepperdine.

As much as that meant to me, I wish even more I had met and somehow helped A-Komaki in high school, in her early journey in prep.

I used to think me coaching DeMar DeRozan in his youth, in our 8th grade high octane AAU team was my highlight of hoop. Nah, if I had helped Alicia back then, that would have been the best of the best. Maybe even doing a story back then on Komaki would’ve been even more satisfying I think.

To walk the journey with someone, that’s what I live for. Me? I actively help 30-40 players a month, for free, that’s what I live for. That’s what Komaki lives for and why we probably get along, besides both being teachers and hoop fanatics. Lol.

So there you have it. I wasn’t a great player like Messi growing up, I always wished I was a dope baller. I’m just a writer, trying to find those that run crazy dope systems like Gregg Popovich.

Coach Kevin and Alicia? They weren’t Messi level players growing up either, they’re more like Manchester City soccer coach Pep Guardiola, forging and helping to craft the next Messi, and that’s pretty cool as well.

Coach Komaki, she’s just so real, I feel blessed to know her. I attended more SC games last year than any other hoop program. It’s just a fun place to hang, to watch the best brand of pure hoop.

I’ll leave you the reader with this, having tried to do justice to Alicia Komaki.

Hear in her own words what she says about herself on IG. It’s a private account of course, she says, “If I’m not coach, I’m Komaki, and sometimes I’m Alicia.”

That’s 100.