Ex-Player’s Book Expounds on Ties Between Backboard, Board Room

Sam Shriver never expected to leave sports when he stopped playing basketball and started Performance Impact, a management consulting company in Escondido.

He had starred at El Segundo High from 1972 to ’74 and then at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. Knee problems forced him to stop playing basketball competitively, but Shriver followed the game on all levels, including a passionate relationship with the Lakers.

Neither did he expect to write a book.

“From Coach to Coach” is Shriver’s first attempt at literature, and it brought him closer to the game he loves.

In the book, Shriver attempts to impart practical business knowledge from sports, using his experience and the input from seven well-known names in basketball:

Pete Newell, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and coach of the 1959 NCAA champion UC Berkeley Bears; Jerry West, former Laker great and current Laker general manager; K.C. Jones, former star and coach of the Boston Celtics; Doug Collins, former NBA player and coach of the Chicago Bulls; Pat Head Summitt, women’s basketball coach at Tennessee; Claire Rothman, president of the Forum, and Wayne Embry, vice president and general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“I first had the idea of writing a book when I was sitting in a bar with Greg Newell (Pete’s son),” said Shriver, who lives in Escondido. “I guess it was in mid-beer. We were talking about how we use sports stories as lessons, and he said, ‘You ought to write a book.’ ”

Execution of the idea was more difficult than quaffing a beer. “I had no idea what it took to write a book,” Shriver said.

Maureen Shriver, Sam’s wife, said she and her husband had to learn the publishing business quickly. “At first it was almost unbelievable. We just said, ‘Sure, we’re gonna’ write a book,’ ” Maureen said. “But then we started working on it, getting printers, opening our publishing company, and when it finally came out it was like a dream.”

Shriver’s book gave him the chance to expound on a personal thesis that many athletes and ex-athletes hold true: Sports equals life.

In Shriver’s youth, basketball was his life. “All I wanted to do was play hoops. I went to school so I could play basketball. If I had spent half the energy in classes as I did on the court, I would never have made less than an A.”

Shriver was a star forward at El Segundo, graduated in 1974 and played at the Coast Guard Academy, earning a degree in behavioral science in 1978.

After five years of service in the Coast Guard, Shriver worked with Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, authors of the book “Management of Organizational Behavior,” a textbook used in business courses. Shriver not only found his vocation while working with Hersey and Blanchard, he found his wife, Maureen. During that time, Shriver also earned an M.B.A. from Pepperdine.

In 1986, Shriver started Performance Impact, and the company did about $350,000 in business, Shriver said. Businesses contract Performance Impact to give seminars in improving management relations and productivity. Shriver expects the fledgling company to clear $1 million this fiscal year.

The 33-year-old Shriver says his business success is related to his basketball success years ago. “There isn’t a day in my life when I don’t draw upon a lesson I learned on the court,” Shriver said. “I’m always thinking about El Segundo versus Bishop Montgomery, or Coast Guard versus MIT.”

“From Coach to Coach” reflects this close relationship between the backboard and the board room. The book is arranged into six chapters, each titled an integral component of business success, according to Shriver: Honesty, Work Ethic, Ego, Winning, Losing, Vision Style. Shriver introduces each concept and then offers lessons in business management.

Shriver began working on the project in June, 1987, videotaping Pete Newell tostart. The book was completed in the spring of this year. He credits Newell with attracting the other six personalities he used. “The project wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Pete Newell,” Shriver said. “If you mention his name in basketball circles, people almost genuflect.

“When I mentioned that Pete had done an interview for me, it was like a magic word, people automatically agreed to help,” Shriver said.

“The book makes a lot of sense,” West said. “The point they tried to make is valid, that in business areas you must make many of the same decisions as you do in sport. Foresight, risk-taking, research, you use all of those in sports franchises. I especially discovered that when I stopped playing and started doing what I am doing now.”

At the end of his project, Shriver said, it was he who learned most of all. “All of these high-power people were so professional and approachable, Jerry West spent a half day with me for the interview and videotape.”

The first printing of “From Coach to Coach” rolled off 5,000 copies, most of which were used for promotional purposes. More copies are on order. Shriver expects the book to have broad appeal not only for businessmen but for anybody who has played a sport and learned a lesson from it. He considers himself lucky to be able to combine his loves for business and sport into a career.

“In high school you don’t have guys who love to play football who are playing the trumpet in the band,” Shriver said. “In life you have people doing what they really don’t want to do. I love what I am doing.”