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T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
Vivek Ranadivé is an Indian immigrant living in Silicon Valley in the United States. An employee at a software company, he decides to coach his daughter Anjali’s youth basketball team. Recognizing that neither he nor his team have much basketball experience, he decides to take a slightly unconventional approach to the game. To do this, he teaches his players to deploy a defensive strategy known as the full-court press, which is when a team applies defensive pressure at all times, not just once the other team has advanced the ball beyond half-court. This runs contrary to how most teams play the game, but it enables Ranadivé’s players compensate for their lack of talent, ultimately keeping the other team from outplaying them beneath their own hoop. This strategy leads the team to the national championships, but because the full-court press is an unconventional tactic, it enrages the parents and coaches of the other teams. For this reason, Ranadivé is forced to call off the strategy in one of the final championship rounds, and this costs them the game. Gladwell uses Ranadivé’s story to demonstrate how effective it can be to think outside the box. He also suggests that certain disadvantages (like Ranadivé’s team’s lack of basketball skills) often force people to think creatively and break from convention in ways that ultimately benefit them.
Vivek Ranadivé Quotes in David and Goliath
The David and Goliath quotes below are all either spoken by Vivek Ranadivé or refer to Vivek Ranadivé. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1: Vivek Ranadivé Quotes
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?
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Vivek Ranadivé Character Timeline in David and Goliath
The timeline below shows where the character Vivek Ranadivé appears in David and Goliath. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Vivek Ranadivé
Gladwell introduces Vivek Ranadivé, an Indian immigrant to the United States who lives in Silicon Valley and works for...
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Ranadivé decides to coach his team to play what’s known as the full-court press, in which...
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...players have only five seconds to pass the ball in from out of bounds, so Ranadivé teaches his players to cover the person trying to make this pass. Instead of letting...
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Ranadivé’s team isn’t the only one in history to have embraced the full-court press. In 1971,...
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...Turks at Aqaba, they had to take long detours through the grueling, merciless desert. Similarly, Ranadivé’s team has to be in impeccable cardiovascular shape to successfully execute the full-court press. It’s...
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...no other reasonable choice but to reassess their approach. In this way, the fact that Ranadivé’s team is so bad at basketball is its most important asset, because it’s what compels...
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Unfortunately for Ranadivé’s team, not everyone approves of their methods. The coaches and parents of the teams they...
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In the national finals, Ranadivé’s team wins their first two rounds. During the third round, though, they play a team...
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Chapter 2: Teresa DeBrito
...Shepaug Valley Middle School?” To address this question, he reminds readers that the story about Ranadivé suggests that common conceptions of advantages and disadvantages are not always accurate. He then guesses...
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