The Lesson In Sports, The Praise of Winning

“Self-knowledge, discipline, courage, and justice are four forms of human excellence explicitly associated with sport and implicitly associated with winning.” In the article Sport, Education, and the Meaning of Victory, Heather Reid explains how the original intention of sport as education that leads to human excellence has not been replaced by the obsession with winning, but that winning a sport is the manifestation of human excellence gained through the lessons and values associated with the commitment to a sport, especially a team sport. 

      Basketball is a great example of a team sport in which discipline, courage, justice and some other values can be quite obvious in players’ willpower, treatment of opponents, interaction with their team, and reaction to wins and losses. In Hoop Dreams, a documentary about the reality of two African American young guys in the inner-city of Chicago who excelled in basketball, I observed the presence of values of human excellence within Arthur Agee and William Gates and the absence thereof as well. Both of these young men were not living in ideal situations. I would say that their mental toughness, courage, and other excellent characteristics were already present within these athletes as a result of their lifestyle of surviving in difficult, unprivileged situations. The absence of other forms of human excellence within these two athletes could have also been influenced by the limitations and negative aspects of their lifestyle, but also because they were just young guys who, like no other, had achieved human excellence in its completeness. Agee and Gates learned many lessons from being on the basketball team, but were still focused on winning, not to have bragging rights, but as the sign of the next step into a reality they’d never seen, but dreamed of. Basketball served as a release for these two guys as well as, as a ticket out of their crime and drug infested environment and basketball is also what they were just naturally very good at.

      A question that I thought of while watching “Hoop Dreams” and that was raised in the Sport, Education, and the Meaning of Victory reading was “Why do we love winning athletes so much?” I thought and then ask: Is it because we get to admire some of the process of their hard work and see the payoffs, instantly? And because the success is not calculated like “winning” in other areas of life are? “We view winning as the manifestation of certain virtues inherent in the athlete in a given performance,” Reid confirms. She goes on the point out the following:  “Winning athletes must be more than tough, they must overcome their fears and desires to quit but they must also realize when more will be lost than gained by staying the course. We should admire athletes who have heart, not those who are simply bold, brazen, brutal . . . heartless. Victors should be revered for combining strength and endurance with the wisdom necessary to use those tools effectively.” Though fun and entertaining, basketball games and any sports are examples of what we want achieved in our own lives, which is hard work and payback, with countless other forms of excellence in between.

We the audience, the spectators, the supporters, the onlookers are the ones who praise winning so naturally and passionately. We become as amazed, excited, or frustrated as the actual athletes and we look at them with reverence. Therefore, one can say without hesitation that spectators have a religious experience when watching  the dynamics of a sport or when seeing the “impossible victories”, like what is often seen in top Tennis star, Rodger Federer, which was mentioned in the New York Times article. We praise athletes who are winning on the surface because it’s good to win, but we also praise winning because we obviously realize the real , deeper meaning of it, and get to experience the athletes overcome and endure struggles to get to the end.

        On the surface, winning and being on top just feels good or boosts the ego of the winner, but the deeper meaning of winning is what seemingly excites the spectators. This might be a different experience for the athletes or perhaps it is the same. Agee and Gates in Hoop Dreams did not like to lose, but it was usually because they lost for something that seemed small and easily fixable. The two athletes wanted to win because it meant they were that much closer to achieving their Hoop Dreams. Also, I’m sure it’s true for every athlete that they like to see their hard work pay off whether in a win (by score) or in long term win (by excellence).  Agee and Gates had many wins in their young basketball career, but did not “win” at achieving their initial Hoop Dreams of playing in the NBA, but this did not mean that they lost. Their lives (interests and motivations) changed through the process of trying to get a professional basketball career and they have become role models with many forms of human excellence that are proof they have won so much at life. Basketball was the lesson and medium to get to greater and because of it they won so much more than games or a professional career. Those who are successful with many wins in the NBA are also no less of winners in comparison to those like Agee and Gates. Basketball is still the lesson; it , along with many other sports, serves as an allegory to situations, commitments, and challenges of life, all for a greater purpose. When successful NBA stars talk to younger upcoming players, the content is likely not bragging on their success, but motivating the younger ones to push through and become excellent. Sport is an obvious lesson, therefore, very important part of education and is one institution that makes winning worthy of praise.