My Least Favorite Opponent

I love basketball for the competition and camaraderie and there is nothing better than when the two go hand in hand.  I read a great article about Derek Smith and his son Nolan Smith. Derek (who played and coached in the NBA) died suddenly when his son Nolan (who plays for Duke) was 8 years old.  One of last things father said to son was that if you have a bad attitude, then no one will want to play with you.  I hope that I've always been the type of player that has been fun to play with, but I've really tried to live up to this standard these last few years as the gap between the memory of my abilities and the reality of my game has continued to widen.

I do fall short of this goal sometimes and it almost always happens when I get more focused on my opponent than on myself. For some reason I'll declare myself judge and jury and decide that someone is complaining too much to the ref, playing dirty or acting in some way that I've declared inappropriate.

Lately I've been doing better at recognizing when I'm headed down the wrong path but there is one type of player that I just can't seem to ignore. Have you ever played against this type of player? They are easily the best player on the other team, physically gifted in both height and athleticism. They are really skilled and have obviously played a lot of basketball. That's not what bothers me though. It's the fact that they always pick the worst player on the other team to guard. They can dunk with ease, but they'll guard the guy whose six inches shorter, two steps slower or both. A lot of times it leads to mismatches for their teammates as a lesser player will be stuck with a bad matchup on defense. There is no advantage to them on the offensive end either as the other team switches a good defender onto them. The worst thing is that the only time they play hard on defense is when their player has the ball so they can physically overwhelm a less skilled player.

It's a total shortcoming of mine, but when I see this type of player I always let it bother me more than I should. It could be the big brother in me, but I think it’s more about what this type of attitude represents. The focus is entirely on the result and not in the experience. I always feel like with talent comes responsibility. How do you know how good you can be if you are never tested? I recognize that in life the path of least resistance can be an efficient way to go, but how do you prepare for facing obstacles in the real world if you always walk away from them in play? What if the obstaclse are unavoidable, do you just quit?

Hopefully as I continue to play, I will get better at ignoring the actions of my opponent, but as a coach I hope I always recognize when someone accepts a challenge even if they are unable to rise to it. Because at the end of the day, without failure there can be no success.