Gladwell uses the basketball strategy known as the full-court press to represent the kind of creative approach underdogs should adopt in order to maximize their chances of defeating more powerful opponents. As a defensive technique, the press makes it especially difficult for even talented teams to advance with the ball to the other end of the court, thereby interfering with their ability to score points. In this way, it gives relatively unskilled teams (like Vivek Ranadivé’s) a better chance of winning against otherwise unbeatable opponents. The full-court press is an incredibly successful strategy, but not everyone embraces it. This, Gladwell argues, is because it requires extremely hard work, since teams have to be in extraordinarily good physical shape to successfully use such a cardiovascular approach. Therefore, only teams who are genuinely desperate are generally willing to adopt this tactic, which reinforces the idea that certain challenges and disadvantages can lead to extremely successful, innovative strategies. That more teams don’t use it also comes to stand for society’s unwillingness to embrace alternative approaches even when it’s clear that those approaches are undeniably beneficial.
The Full-Court Press Quotes in David and Goliath
Yet the puzzle of the press is that it has never become popular. […The Fordham coach] never used the full-court press the same way again. And the UMass coach, […] who was humbled in his own gym by a bunch of street kids—did he learn from his defeat and use the press himself the next time he had a team of underdogs? He did not. Many people in the world of basketball don’t really believe in the press because it’s not perfect: it can be beaten by a well-coached team with adept ball handlers and astute passers. Even Ranadivé readily admitted as much. All an opposing team had to do to beat Redwood City was press back. […] The press was the best chance the underdog had of beating Goliath. Logically, every team that comes in as an underdog should play that way, shouldn’t they? So why don’t they?
The Full-Court Press Symbol Timeline in David and Goliath
