I caught the last quarter of the Lakers-Mavericks game yesterday. I tuned in just in time to watch the flagrant fouls by Bynum and Odom which resulted in their ejection from the game. It made me sad, especially for Phil Jackson. Many argue that he is the best coach in the history of NBA, and some will go as far to say that he is the best coach in the history of sports. And yet in the likely final game of his career, his team was beaten–badly. It completed the only losing playoff sweep of his career. And it was ugly.
There have already been a few beautiful articles about the inconsistency in the losing Lakers team. I’d highly recommend reading this short, but great piece from the New Yorker. This blog won’t be about that.
Rather, it will simply be about the concept that announcer Mike Tirico shared after witnessing the flagrant fouls: “If you’re going to play like a champion, you must lose like a champion.”
I watched Andrew Bynum after being ejected, remove his jersey and walk off the court.
And then I flashed back to my days of PAL Soccer and Little League Baseball. No matter how badly my team won or loss (and I was definitely on some losing teams), we always met in the middle of the field and high-fived every member of the other team and simply said, “Good Game.”
I remember one time, during a particularly bad loss, one of my teammates (we were all about 10-11 years old at the time), got the idea to spit in his hand before giving the high-fives. Our coaches overheard this, and quickly admonished us. There was a standard at which we’d play. They didn’t say it at the time, but it could have been “If you’re going to play like a champion, you must lose like a champion.”
It changed the way we approached “the game” for the rest of the season.
Bynum, in a post game interview stated: ““For me, it was embarrassing having the smallest guy on the court keep running down the lane and then making shots. So I just fouled him.”
I was thinking about Bynum’s response this morning as I read a great marketing blog entry entitled “Is Someone Getting the Best of You?”
The entry showed that there are two ways of reading that title: A) In the negative manner where we doubt and mistrust those around us–that they are taking advantage of us. B) In the positive manner: “Are we giving others our best?”
I think “losing like a champion” is making sure that we give others our best.
No, we don’t give up. The greats give it their best until the very last second ticks away on the clock, but when it ticks away, they show the respect to the opponent, and prepare for the next match.
As you deal with adversity in the coming months, ask yourself:
“Are you dealing with it like a champion?”
“Are you giving others your best?”