I Just finished watching the Lakers crumble and give up a lead in the fourth quarter and lose to the Thunder. It was and is always so frustrating to watch teams play with such arrogance and pride and with a great lack of heart and humility. The Lakers are a good team with the tools to do well in the playoffs this year. Unfortunately, they are likely to lose this round because of a lack of fire, heart, discipline and overall character. It's understandable that it's a rough transition year with a new coach and a shortened season. But, the bottom line in this situation is that the other team is more hungry than we are.
Aside from the Lakers' poor performance and frustrating lacks, for the past few years and even more, it's been a bitter sweet thing to even watch the NBA games. While I enjoy the game very much and always look forward to a good competitive match between strong teams and coaches, the whole spirit of the game and the league has been very off-putting. If it's not the pride and arrogance, selfishness and immaturity of our incredibly self-obsessed, egotistical, chest pounding, tantrum throwing, cliché repeating, disrespectful, cursing young basketball gods that gets to me and forces me to switch the channel out of complete disgust…if it's not them, it's the distracting, conceited, unfunny, annoying commentators that drive me nuts! Oh how I miss Chick and Stu!
So, when the playoffs come around now, I'm excited and dreading it at the same time. I want my kids to watch and enjoy a sport I love and that can be a great tool for teaching them and helping them learn valuable lessons as they engage in athletics themselves. But, I'm not eager to continue bringing these super proud, humility-feigning, brats into our living room all the time and have my kids emulate them.
Allowing kids to come to the NBA out of high school is one of the worst things the league ever did. It's a large part of the problem and the reason why we have a league full of kids instead of men playing the game. Athletic talent is great and of course money making is going to be the main goal in the end. But, what a terrible sacrifice we've made in terms of the character of the game and its players.
After the game tonight and after having most of the first round of the playoffs running in the background while I work at my studio, I needed a break. At times like these, I really appreciate YouTube. I was particularly frustrated with the lack of creativity and determination in post play in the league. There are good post players, but nothing near what I grew up with. So, after talking with my son and pointing out lacking elements in the Lakers' performance and then discussing overall offense and defense strategies that are being used by many teams today and strategies that I remember being used by other teams and players when I watched the league growing up, only a couple decades ago, we went to YouTube and I was able to find and share these videos on Hakeem Olajuwon and James Worthy. These guys were not only great guys with way more character in them than you find in most of the players on the court today. But, they were also awesome at scoring with their backs to the basket. They weren't limited to this type of scoring. But, man they sure did it great! Our younger post players in the league today could definitely stand to watch and learn from footage of their playing style like this.
One more point…
You'll notice in these videos of older players that after a powerful dunk or an and-one play, instead of staring arrogantly out into the crowd like a Greek god, pounding on their chests, or screaming at the top of their lungs demanding yet more attention from their worshipping audience, these hall-of-fame, super-talented MEN of character simply gave a spirited high-five and headed back up the court to continue working diligently to serve the team and do their best on the next play. In fact, you'll see them with sincere smiles on their faces and with a sincere spirit of love for the game and respect for their peers, even while they compete hard and passionately to be victorious and rise to big challenges.
I'm okay with my kids emulating these guys.
- Want
