THE PRIDE MENACE

Quiet as it’s kept, I love playing basketball against arrogant teams. It usually breeds a bit of complacency on the part of the overconfident and makes my job easier. There’s nothing like playing the role of the underdog, having that feeling that you have nothing to lose. I play in basketball leagues where pride reigns. And I can only speak for men because that’s who I compete against on any given Sunday and the arrogance exuded almost assumes a personified personality because it looks the same in nearly every gym. Arrogance on a Sunday looks like men who use words to intimidate and will look a referee in the eye and plead that the scorer’s table didn’t record the last bucket while knowing full well the plea is a lie. The Arrogance also reveals itself when a man who hasn’t put the time into preparation expects to beat you because he’s….well…himself. Are you tracking with me? Have you ever been around someone who expects to win simply because they showed up?

C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, it quoted as having said, “…each person’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s pride…” When I walk into most gyms, I’m not participating in nor am I watching basketball; I am beholding one of the oldest spectacles in human history – the vying for more territory. I’ve found that at the root of pride is a desire to be known, a voracious hunger for being heralded. There is an inordinate concentration on being No. 1 but without the work ethic or the humility that accompanies competition. I see desperate men wielding the name of their team, organization and/or fraternity and using it as a credential.

The beautiful thing about basketball, however, is that it’s inanimate and its rules require skill, resolve and execution. The perfect player is not distracted by the Goliath of pretense and schoolyard bullying. Growing up in LA there was a lot of trash talkin’ on the court and I could barely “walk and chew gum” so I usually just shut my mouth and tried to play hard. So as I got older I continued to be a non-talker and it’s one of the best limitations I have. See, the problem with the pride C.S. Lewis spoke of is that it drives you outside of the rules of engagement. A man drunk with a false sense of superiority will lie to himself en route to embarrassment. The most ready example is the team that plays a team they’ve beaten before but loses this time by a hefty margin. They’re dominated that night and all they can say is, “We blew it. How could we lose to THEM.” Correction, your team was beaten because tonight they performed at a level far below capacity. Can you dig it? Minus the insidious pride, the true competitor gives credit where it’s due and concentrates on the things he can control for a future contest. The kind of pride I’m talking about has NO PLACE IN SPORTS or elsewhere for that matter. Winning is never about the perceived inferiority of that guy or what color your uniform is; it’s about how close you can come today to being your best. Corny but true.