More on Basketball . . .
Charley Rosen in an article for The Sporting News said some of the same things about basketball that I said yesterday, just a whole lot better. In fairness, he has written like 12 books and I just have this measley little blog . . . An excerpt:
The corporate entity that is the NBA is a victim of its own need to generate big bucks. By lionizing individual players and marginalizing The Game, the league necessarily creates artificial heroes and villains, true-believers and apostates.
What to do, then? How to bring a sense of proportion into the business and fanaticism of professional sports?
Education is the only answer — or rather, reeducation. The players, the fans, the professional observers, and even the NBA's puppet-masters must learn how to discern the true, eternal beauty of athletic competition. In truth, basketball is ballet with defense. A leaping, dancing, spontaneous celebration of the human spirit as performed by gifted, acrobatic giants — the finest athletes in the world! The Game represents a blending of skills in unlimited and unpredictable combinations. Yes, it's five-against-five. But it's also 10 players playing one game.
Winning is certainly the goal. But so is community of spirit. And there's also a bittersweet glory in playing the right way and losing. Both on and off the court.
Isn't this the challenge for all of us in life? Through Christ, we are reintroduced to our purpose in life and why we are here: to live for God's glory. He has given us a new heart and enabled us to live in communion with Him and in community with others. Sin and selfishness distorts our glory and causes us to fall out of rhthym with God's pace. We struggle, become ugly and distorted, and it is obvious that we have made life all about us. Praise God for His grace that restores us and allows us to step back on the path that leads to life. When we walk on His path, we have greater joy, peace, and beauty in our lives than when we chart our own course. It all makes sense, Him being the Creator and all.
The corporate entity that is the NBA is a victim of its own need to generate big bucks. By lionizing individual players and marginalizing The Game, the league necessarily creates artificial heroes and villains, true-believers and apostates.
What to do, then? How to bring a sense of proportion into the business and fanaticism of professional sports?
Education is the only answer — or rather, reeducation. The players, the fans, the professional observers, and even the NBA's puppet-masters must learn how to discern the true, eternal beauty of athletic competition. In truth, basketball is ballet with defense. A leaping, dancing, spontaneous celebration of the human spirit as performed by gifted, acrobatic giants — the finest athletes in the world! The Game represents a blending of skills in unlimited and unpredictable combinations. Yes, it's five-against-five. But it's also 10 players playing one game.
Winning is certainly the goal. But so is community of spirit. And there's also a bittersweet glory in playing the right way and losing. Both on and off the court.
Isn't this the challenge for all of us in life? Through Christ, we are reintroduced to our purpose in life and why we are here: to live for God's glory. He has given us a new heart and enabled us to live in communion with Him and in community with others. Sin and selfishness distorts our glory and causes us to fall out of rhthym with God's pace. We struggle, become ugly and distorted, and it is obvious that we have made life all about us. Praise God for His grace that restores us and allows us to step back on the path that leads to life. When we walk on His path, we have greater joy, peace, and beauty in our lives than when we chart our own course. It all makes sense, Him being the Creator and all.
posted by Alan Cross @ 9:03 AM
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