Humble in Victory, Proud in Defeat

And so it came to pass, in the winter of 2007, that Celtic pride reached a new low, while setting a new franchise record for consecutive losses. And from where I sit, the end appears nowhere in sight. This current losing streak is not quite so dramatic as Danny Ainge's 0-13 start with the Phoenix Suns a decade ago (which spawned the following joke: "Knock, Knock" "Who's there?" "Owen." "Owen who?" "Owen Thirteen....") But like a lot of fair-weather West Coast ex-pats, I've pretty much stopped even watching, since the Celtics can't even seem to figure out new ways to lose... preferring to falter in the old-fashioned way night after night after night. It's pretty pathetic, actually. And I find little comfort in the fact that the team will be better in the future, while for the time being at least it's easy to get tickets.

Meanwhile, saw two other games this past week, both of which left me feeling very inspired. The first was the Oregon/UCLA rematch in Pauley Pavilion Thursday night. Earlier this year the Ducks beat the Bruins in Mac Court by a bucket, in what was one of the most exciting college games I've seen all year. Thursday night, with John Wooden in the house, I had few doubts that sixth-ranked UCLA would be sufficiently motivated to insure a different outcome on their own home court, but even so it was gratifying to see the ninth-ranked Ducks hang with them, battling back and battling back but just never quite getting over the hump. The California kids were just a little quicker to the ball all night long, which caused the kids from Eugene to rush their shots just enough to turn normally routine baskets into near misses. Move quickly, but never hurry Coach Wooden used to say. But the Ducks had to hurry to keep up with the Bruins, and in the end they lost by a dozen.

The second game was between our local private High School and their traditional North Shore rival, a team now coached by our team's former coach. The opponents got up early 4-2, then the home team put on their press, reeled off seven straight points and never looked back. I try to watch these kids every chance I get, even though I don't have a kid on the team myself; and it's been lots of fun watching them develop and mature, both as individual players and as a team. Their execution Friday night was almost perfect, and they ended up beating a very good rival by a very wide margin. I'd almost forgotten how good a victory like that can feel. But then again, I haven't experienced that many of them.

One of the drawbacks of playing a lot of pick-up ball is that after awhile victory or defeat don't really seem to matter all that much. Sure, there may be a little playing time at stake in those games where the winners keep the court and the losers wait for "next," and pride of course is always a factor, but I've played in Junior Varsity practices that had more intensity than most of over-35 pick-up games I play in now, and I guess on some level at least I prefer it that way. Aerobics for Middle-Aged Men one of my buddies calls our game, and I guess that's an OK thing. Too much intensity and competitiveness is actually frowned upon; nobody wants to get hurt out there, and the bickering that generally seems to accompany too competitive an attitude just detracts from everyone's playing time... not to mention the enjoyment of the game.

But I also have to confess, I sometimes miss it. It sometimes pisses me off when guys don't D-up, when they basket-hang and don't share the ball, can't be bothered to fight over the top of screens, or don't step through after making a pass. Of course, it also sometimes bugs me when guys crash the offensive boards too aggressively, or make the hard foul in order to prevent an easy lay-up. And of course, I have also been guilty of both sets of infractions myself many times. So I guess I'm just a hoop hypocrite. But this slogan, "humble in victory, proud in defeat" really says a lot to me. It's good to win, but it's also good to be a good winner: to respect the skill and competitiveness of your opponent, and to recognize that "all glory is fleeting." And it's good as well to be able to hold your head high in defeat, knowing that you left it all out there on the floor, and have nothing to be ashamed of. Because at the end of the day, it really isn't about whether you win or lose. It's how you play the game....