If you’re a sports fan like me, or even if you’re not, you may have seen this highlight sometime this week. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls, Taj Gibson had a HUGE, MONSTER dunk over Dwyane Wade. It was AWESOME! HE was AWESOME! And by “he,” I am, of course, referring to DWYANE WADE!
I have seen this highlight shown over and over since Monday night. And without exception, every commentator has marveled at Gibson’s “facial” on Wade. They’ve laughed about it! They’ve intimated that Wade should be embarrassed! They’ve assailed him while lauding Gibson!
Which leads me to a simple question…
Why do we ridicule failure?
I just don’t get it. It was a fast-break. Gibson was running at nearly full speed. It would have been EASY for Wade to pack it in, to assume that he couldn’t stop the charging Gibson, who had two teammates on either side to which he could have passed the ball at any time. It was 3 on 1. But Wade didn’t back down. He stuck with the play! He refused to give up, even if the Bulls scored, even if it meant that he would forever be posterized by the marketing masters and piranha pundits of the shoe companies and media moguls.
I, for one, am tired of it. I’m bored with the fickle fanaticism of today’s consumer. We expect our athletes to try, to give us everything they’ve got. And then the moment that they do that, that they risk it all, that they put themselves in a position where the chances of succeeding are a million-to-one, we pounce! We ridicule them! We laugh at them! We CELEBRATE their failure!
And that’s exactly what this has been…a celebration of failure! It hasn’t been a celebration of a great triumph. It was a two-point play! The game ended up a blow-out! And any rational person would conclude that the taller Gibson SHOULD have converted that dunk; it would have been a miracle if the shorter Wade had managed to block the shot from such a defensive posture.
The point is simple. Celebrate the Bulls. Go ahead. They won a game. Hooray. Celebrate Gibson…it was a great play and really helped to keep the momentum in the Bulls’ corner for the remainder of the night. But if you can only celebrate one thing…celebrate Dwyane Wade, and his commitment to stand NO MATTER the cost to his image or his legacy!
I’ve seen Tim Duncan get dunked on by virtually every star in the NBA over the last fifteen years. And you know what? He NEVER quits trying! He ALWAYS goes back up! More times than not, he’s posterized. But Duncan doesn’t seem to care! And neither should you! Oh, and by the way…Duncan is widely considered to be the best power forward in NBA history!
I celebrate athletes who aren’t afraid to try and fail! And I celebrate people who aren’t afraid of that, either! Yeah…it was just a stupid basketball game. And it was just one play in the game. But it was so much more than that. It was a microcosm of human behavior. You have those that succeed, that give their best and score. You have those that fail, that give everything they have, even though they know it’s probably not enough to win every time. And then you have those that sit on the sidelines and celebrate FAILURE while they warm their seats! And those people don’t win at anything. Ever.
Awesome. I totally loved that dunk, but did not consider I was celebrating somone’s failure. I love sports, but we do need to stop being armchair quarterbacks. Makin me think…..don’t like it.
I totally agree, Johnnie! And to be clear, I have no problem with Bulls fans cheering the dunk; they should! I just can’t stand the ridiculing of Wade! He’s a hero (as much as people playing a game can be) in my book! Very inspirational!
It makes some people feel good when thy know full well they couldn’t do it. They wouldn’t even attempt it. We should be celebrating , like you said, that someone is willing to put their fire into their craft. In singing you always say, “Just go for it.” If you reach for it to be safe, you often end up flat. If you go for, you might crack but you also might be glorious.
“Just go for it”…eggs hackly!