A Sad Day for Sports?

I’d not wanted to do two sports articles in a row, for variety’s sake, but after the events of last night I felt pressed to comment.

My favorite basketball player of all time—Tim Duncan—won his fourth NBA Championship ring with the San Antonio Spurs roughly twelve hours prior to my writing this post. I watched the game sitting on our living room couch, my Dad was asleep for most of the game—it’d been a long few days at work—but he was there to watch it with me as always. His sleeping had more to do with his exhaustion than the fact that the Finals this year were atrocious.

But this post is not going to be about the Spurs or Tim Duncan or LeBron James or how bad the Finals were. Rather, this post is going to be about the aftermath.

Obviously pleased by the turn of events that I had just witnessed on ABC, I didn’t go straight to bed. I went to ESPN.com and saw a link to their “conversation” page about the Spurs winning their fourth championship this decade and joining the Celtics, Lakers, and Bulls as the only teams to win more than three NBA Championships.

Now, I am not your typical sports fan. I attempt to approach sports with an air of rationalism and an analytical mind; I like the thinking parts of the game. The reason I like to watch games with my Dad is that the two of us banter back and forth and break down what we’re watching—why can’t Tim Duncan make a shot? Why haven’t the Cavaliers picked up the tempo and tried to force the issue, because grinding it out isn’t working? Why aren’t the Cavaliers putting James back on Parker, the only person who almost slowed down the soon-to-be Finals MVP? So while we most certainly have a rooting interest—Tim Duncan has been my favorite basketball player since he came to Wake Forest and as the Bobcats aren’t a contender yet, nothing pleases me more than Tim Duncan amassing a large ring collection—we try and approach the game for what it is, a simple game of basketball, for it’s a game that we love.

And so when I click on the link to go to the conversation page—I’m not going to use any direct quotes—but I find every third post is in all caps, while others are mere insults to other posters or one of the two teams. Quite frankly, I was embarrassed to be a basketball fan at that moment. These were my peers. These were the individuals that, like me, had stayed up until midnight to watch the game, and instead of appreciating a gutsy win by a great team, they took all of their time explaining how the Suns were the best team in the league, how LeBron James is awful, and how bad the Finals were. No one said anything remotely constructive. The only talk was that “LeBron has to learn to shoot,” “Robert Horry won the Finals two rounds ago,” and “basketballposter111 that doesn’t make up for the fact that you’re gay.” Of course, it really looked more like: “LeBrick lrn 2 ****ING SHOOT!” and “ROBERT HORRY 1 THE FINALS 2 RNDS AGO!!!!!!” and “bbp111 ur still GAY!!!!” and other equally painful sentences.

Up until last night, I’d never really gotten why so many people hate sports, but I think I get it now. I realize now that this is the culture. It’s a culture of generalizations, hate, and fickleness; where whoever shouts the loudest inherently wins—it’s not a matter of enjoying basketball on any level. Admittedly, the NBA Finals were awful this year and something has to be done—David Stern himself is pondering this, if you’ll believe his appearances on two podcasts yesterday—but basketball is basketball and we should be celebrating it, not tearing each other to shreds. I don’t know this for a fact, but I guess I’m the minority. I guess nobody cares that two teams played great defense and competed and some shots didn’t fall here and there, so the games were ugly. I guess nobody cared to look beyond that, to try and find something within the competition of two good basketball teams with good basketball players.

And all I wonder is: when did that stop being enough?

Thus Angered the Sports Gods

If you’d be willing to go and time travel for a bit, I’d like to take you back to May 12, 2007 to a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds.

It is the bottom of the fourth inning; the score is tied one to one. The Dodgers are at bat and Kyle Lohse is on the mound for the Reds. Jeff Kent has gotten onto base with a walk and Luis Gonzalez blooped an infield single. Lohse then pulled himself together and struck out the next two batters, Russell Martin and Andre Ethier. So that’d be two on, two out, 1-1 ballgame.

Andy LaRoche, the call-up third baseman playing in just his third series, is up next as the eighth batter in the order; behind him is Brady Penny, known more for his—at the time—1.39 ERA than his hitting abilities.

Lohse intentionally walks LaRoche, loading the bases.

Lohse walks Penny.

Jeff Kent is forced home.

Dodgers take the lead.

The next three Dodgers batters—Furcal, Pierre, and Nomar—hit three singles to drive in four runs. It is now 6-1, Dodgers. The game, with Penny and his 1.39 ERA still at the mound, is over.

You will call me out, of course, and remind me that walking the pitcher is inexcusable, not the decision to throw at him. Cincinnati’s manager was quite vehement in making that comment. Penny, too, in the post-game (and this is a direct quote from the recap): “Even without the bases loaded, walking the pitcher is the worst thing you can do in baseball as a pitcher,” which is very true. This is from the pitcher who started in the All-Star game last year for the NL. So, admittedly, much of the blame is on Lohse.

But it seems to me that sports karma bit Cincinnati in the ass.

Gregg Easterbrook—the Tuesday Morning Quarterback at ESPN.com—has written numerous articles on the subject in regards to football, particularly as it pertains to punts. Most of the time he gives the same argument: Team A punted the ball on short distance X in opposing territory resulting in them getting their asses handed to them by Team B which didn’t punt the ball on short distance Y in opposing territory.

He claims the Football Gods do not smile fondly upon such foolish displays of cowardice.

I argue to one-up Easterbrook: the Sports Gods do not smile fondly upon such foolish displays of cowardice and disrespect.

Rumors are swirling around the NBA right now that David Stern rigged the NBA Draft Lottery, held on May 28, in which Portland and Seattle won the top two picks over Boston, Memphis, and Milwaukee seemingly as punishment for the alleged tanking that took place in these three organizations.

I say not so much Stern, but rather Sports Gods.

The greatest sin in sports is a lack of willingness to compete. The lowest of the low and the worst of the worst owe it to their legion of fans—particularly in professional sports, where there are no allegiances, other than to history and the dollar—to give their all on the playing field day in and day out. Tanking, punting in opposing territory, and intentionally walking (particularly when you’re not even looking for a double play) are acts of disrespect to the sports in question.

And he who disrespects his sport shall be spurned by the Sports Gods.

Resilience in the face of long odds is often met with great reward. Continued effort and will to compete, the constant striving for success usually heaps great reward. Down eight points early in the first half of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs can fight back to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, even with their superstar on the bench in foul trouble, even with their lightning rod off the bench going 0-fer. Despite all that they can go on a 10 to 0 run and take a two point halftime lead, all because the Spurs never show for an instant that they believe they are going to lose.

The moment the Reds walk LaRoche there is a chink in the armor, an unintentional display taken to be fear.

And all of a sudden the game changes.

The fastballs become easier to hit. The basket looks a little bit larger. That hole between the two offensive linemen seems to be open for just a tiny while longer.

By not intentionally walking to face poor batters, by not punting on fourth and short, by believing, whole-heartedly, that you are going to kick the ass of the other team, these are the simple acts that define the psychology of a winning team; they’re the difference that will uneven the playing field. At the highest level of professional sports there is not a talent gap. Everyone can play. The difference between the best and good?

The best just don’t lose.

And the Sports Gods smile.