Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a sports fan. I painfully sit with the in-laws on Thanksgiving day when the NFL games come on. Because I like to get along with people, I feign interest. I know a few names of football players in Texas, simply because I hear their names on the radio or before I switch channels during the local news.
I freely admit that I am a snob about my distaste for most professional and big college sports. I think it is entertainment for the masses and I don't consider myself one of them. Of course I do not limit my prejudices to sports. I feel the same way about reality television, most competition game shows and sitcoms that play to the mose basic, vulgar traits of Americans. If it is popular with the majority of Americans, I probably don't like it.
My main problem with professional sports is that it has lost its identity as, well, sports. To me, sport is a healthy, competition between equally-matched contenders,
each using only mental and physical ability and training to win. Wining means victory over the other solely for the triumph of the spirit.
The exception I have to this is the Spurs and the rest of the NBA. If I did not live where I do, I probably would not have become a fan of the Spurs. But if there is an
exception to the all for me world of professional teams and their supposed athelets, it is the San Antonio Spurs.
This was exemplified recently by comments from another NBA coach about the coach of the Spurs, Gregg Popovich. Last night, the Spurs played the Golden State Warriors.
Their coach is Don Nelson. Popovich was an assistant under him years ago. Now they're both head coaches and have been for many years. Reporters asked Nelson
something about Popovich. Nelson remarked that Popovich had not called him like he expected when he got to town. Nelson remarked that they are friends and he was planning to meet Pop for dinner. Popovich responded to this from the reporters by agreeing that he should have called his old friend and shared an evening dinner and a bottle of wine.
To me, this is a perfect example of what sports is supposed to be. Friends competing. Each knows the other's strength and weaknesses. Hell, they learned from
each other and know the other's tricks as well. But they are still friends. There is a mutual respect there. Elsewhere in professional sports, there are players who
specialize more in trash talking than in sharpening their skills. They spend more time negotiating the next contract, either with the agent, the team or with the
media, than they do staying in shape. The competition is now between them and the ones writing the check or between them and the insane fans who still buy their
jerseys at $75 each. They do not try hard because they only want to win. If they compete on the field at all, it's to ensure a better paycheck. I many times wonder if losing means anything to the person with the multi-million dollar mansion and throngs of adoring fans.
This is evident in professional baseball too. Huge contracts are not even enough for some. Some players, playing for teams that have little chance of a national title, use whatever means are necessary, not even to win, but to get their name into the all-time record books. Steroid use, corked bats are just some examples of
players who do not play for the love of the game, but rather, for the love of themselves.
Does San Antonio pay high salaries? Sure they do, They could not exist in the NBA without this. But time after time, the Spurs players exemplify sportsmanlike conduct. Manu comes off the bench gladly when any other player of
his talent would demand to be a starter. And what is a starter other than the first players who begin a game? But it has glory with it.
Of course the sports history books are full of great humans who did play for the love of the game. But those individuals are becoming a rare bunch.
Except in San Antonio.
