GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP, THE MISSING INGREDIENT

Good sportsmanship crosses all boundaries in private and public life. It’s the public part we get judged on.

Are we gracious in victory. Humble, even? Can we take defeat in stride and learn from the loss?

Let’s say we’re that good for the sake of argument, instead of the small, bitter, people we secretly are. At least sports fans are, the ones paying attention.

We don’t always win, our dreams don’t always come true when we need them most, but ignoring the learning part, the educational part, is missing out on the joys of life when everything work out.

How’re things with you? Need a kicker to get started?

One of the biggest thrills in life is finding someone to share it with, a partner. Is there really someone in the history of mankind who could put up with you?

Look around at people you know, couples, and you’ll find the answer. If someone can put up with the jackasses you know, there’s someone out there who’s a match for you.

Good Sportsmanship In Relationships Starts Early

A little boy takes tap dance lessons long enough to make it to the Broadway stage. That would be Broadway in Portland, Oregon, and the state was the Performing Arts Center.

The dance group had a superstar girl who did a solo routine; the little boy in the choir had a crush. During her solo, the dancer lost a shoe. The little boy in the wings off-stage ran out and picked it up for her.

His good sportsmanship shined through even in the cut throat world of kid tap dance and stage parents.

2.

Another little boy was a basketball player good enough to make the local Classic Basketball team. All of the good players in Rec League ball moved up the Classic in middle school.

The team practiced and learned how depend on each other. The kid felt like he was good enough to start, to crack the line-up. But sports are funny like that. The cream doesn’t always rise to the top of the gym.

This kid was an effort guy whose body was catching up to his will. From a coaching perspective, that’s the kid you want to nurture. Youth sports are all about next season, staying engaged, and not winning every game with desperate zeal.

The kid knew he was good enough to start and felt bad when he didn’t. He told his dad, and his dad said, “Stay ready. When the chance to play comes, play hard?”

The dad understood the situation. The kid was mainly a practice player who got game time at the end. He wanted more. He’d earned more, but the coach had a job to do, which was play his kid as much as he could.

That was the team.

The dad talked to the coach. “I’d like you to tell my kid what he needs to do for more playing time,” he said.

The coach started explaining to the dad. The dad said, “I’d like you to tell the kid, not me. I’m not on the team.”

And that’s what happened. The kid learned how to improve, got better, more playing time, and showed good sportsmanship through it all.

When Sportsmanship Is Missing

The top picture shows the medal ceremony for the 1972 Olympic basketball tournament. The second place silver medal spot is empty. Until the Munich Olympics, America had won every basketball gold medal.

In the end, the American team had been cheated on the court and refused to accept the tarnished silver. The USSR showed up for their tarnished gold.

When you’re used to winning, making a winning effort, and know you won, losing is hard.

It’s especially hard for low-character, low effort people, those who lie and cheat their way through life and call it winning. Even harder when they teach their kids to lie and cheat and call it winning.

If you find yourself on a world stage bigger than SW Broadway in Portland, Oregon, do your homework. Lying and cheating your way to great success brings great scrutiny, great criticism, and great support from the sort of scum lying and cheating appeals to.

In a bigger picture than you’re used to seeing, decency shines through. Unfortunately, so do baser qualities like ignorance and stupidity.

Being ignorant and stupid allowed the USSR basketball team to claim America’s gold in the ’72 Olympics. It was a hard lesson for everyone in sports.

Being ignorant and stupid is no way to live during the covid19 pandemic. Wear a mask, wash your hands, keep socially distant.

The ’72 team still carry bitter feelings.

What feelings will you carry if you accidentally pass the virus over Thanksgiving? Stay home. Be a winner.