More than a Game

Few Things are as Developmentally Valuable as Team Sports

Don Yeomans, Wolves, 1981, silkscreen

Small topics come together like the shards of reality they are. Status, socialization, adapting to the crumbling House of Lies all overlap and reflect. Nothing brings the connections out like things that weave through society on a lot of levels. Sports being a huge one. It’s actually too big a topic for a comprehensive post. Think of all the aspects of sports in culture, from childhood development all the way to the vast global professional entertainment complex. Focused themes make way more sense. If people find it interesting, they can accumulate into something wider. Shards. For now, a pro example that touches on developmental impact and some broader themes. Including how archetypal examples can apply to street level people. Pro athlete comparisons are usually preposterous because professional realities are personally unrelatable. But they do work as general archetypes. Even better than Pedowood does because they’re real people with real reactions.

MelodyArtPrint, Vintage Basketball Wall Art, digital picture

Keep it simple and separate team sports from individual ones (golf, tennis, diving) or personal training (lifting, running, yoga). They all share health and status benefits, but have different socialization outcomes. Since this post is about the social side, solitary pursuits aren’t directly relevant. History shows us sports and physical challenges have always been common among high status males for countless reasons. Obviously there are tons of non-kinetic high status places in society. Hence “common”. Note that people aggressively denying the link between sports and status are invariably low status. Non-kinetic high status men - like high status men in general - don’t care about things they don’t do. There’s a reason why honest men offering wisdom to guys trying to self-improve or raise sons bang the sports drum.

Always start with the fruits and observe what’s actually going on. Underneath all the socio-cultural-economic-psychological baggage. Sports are defined, self-contained social microcosms. Leave out fixing - pre-scripting is the opposite of sport. Rules and scoring are spelled out and positions are generally meritocratic. Incompetents are routinely cut or canned. Roles and functions don’t always translate to larger society, creating some friction for former athletes. This isn’t a revelation. Sports aren’t life is obvious. But there’s huge overlap. The developmental growth absolutely does carry over. And the clear structure brings out patterns that may be fuzzier in reality.

Earle Bergey, Chalk Line Champions, for Exciting Sports magazine cover, 1950, oil on canvas laid on masonite

Individual personality obviously still matters on a team, but talent is essential. There are plenty of inspirational leaders and field or court generals who aren’t the most gifted. But your Alpha dog is going to be your best player. Unless he’s still maturing, and then a changing of the guard is coming at some point. Everyone - especially the inspirational leader types - know exactly where everyone falls on the talent scale. Not just because of try-outs or scouting either. Countless practices and games are a big enough sample size to smooth out any hot or cold streaks. This squelches Gamma for the most part. Simmering resentments and overrating exist, but within performance metric limits. Success and playing time are independent of self-image. That’s faux self-esteem inversion. Self-image grows from success and perseverance. This is universally valuable, but especially for children who are still imprinting social patterns. Accepting reality, understanding role, sublimating ego - unless you’re the best. Because there’s no pretense of equalism. Coach can yell at the Alpha dog for not stepping up. For passing me the ball instead of taking the shot - an in-your-place twofer unique to sports. The pros are littered with more reserved gifted types who crumbled under the limelight of leadership. Being “the star” is more responsibility than privilege.

Jackson and Paxon are familiar faces from the Ewing’s Shattered Dreams Era.

Nobody embodies sports Alpha like Michael Jordan. Not the revisionist bitter Jordan trying to rewrite his post-retirement reality - that’s the sports and life mismatch. I mean the virtuoso force of nature on the court. The perfect marriage of talent, will, and desire to win. Team sports are so socially valuable because of the balance between individual talent and team goals. Basketball more than the other [American big four + soccer] is a showcase for individual ability. But polished teams routinely beat incohesive collections of better individual talents. Jordan and coach Phil Jackson perfected a system where the best player of all time could shine on one of - if not the - greatest teams of all time. Individual and collective harmonized into what seemed like a group extension of Jordan’s will. The opportunity of a lifetime for players able to thrive in their roles at that level and under that pressure. For others, a bit rougher road.

Pietro Longhi, The Faint, around 1744, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Can’t find the link, so oral history from memory. There was an old 90’s interview where Jordan spoke at some length about touted prospect and Bulls super-sub Toni Kukoc. Kukoc has been the prize project of hated GM Jerry Krause, and while he was a very good player - a borderline star with moments of brilliance - he never quite lived up to the early “White Magic” hype. With the Bulls a juggernaut on the court, friction between Kukoc, Jordan and Pippen gave the media some semblance of drama to talk about. The issues seemed to be Kukoc’s inconsistency and passivity, Pippin’s intense resentment over his own ridiculously undermarket salary, and general animosity for Krause and his favoritism. The media played up the racial angle as they are wont to do. Mainly echoing claims Pippen made that he still holds to. Judging from the interview comments, Jordan’s feelings seem completely different. He didn’t consider Kukoc’s talent overrated at all. Quite the opposite. Kukoc irritated him for being so physically gifted and mentally soft. He made a comparison with teammate Steve Kerr as someone with a fraction of the athletic ability who got everything he could out of his body. Kukoc with Kerr’s heart and attitude is a superstar. Given his own maniacal drive to win, wasted potential was infuriating. And the Alpha leader resents missing out on what another all-star would add to the toolbox.

Photo by David E. Klutho for Sports Illustrated From left - Kukoc, center Luc Longley, Pippen, Jordan & Kerr. Drama aside, the aggregate basketball intelligence, length and skill in this line-up is unearthly. The ball moved like a video game, with Pippen, Longley & Kukoc conducting, Kerr the stiletto, and Jordan the cheat code.

It’s Pollyannaish to pretend the NBA was a land of racial milk and honey. But most racial stuff played out among media and fans. On some, level game has always recognized game. Go back to Russell and Cousy in Boston. The wave of European players at every level from MVP to benchwarmer is the latest example of this. Cross-racial comparisons were more media canard than issue for serious fans. No one who loves the game balks at calling Doncic the 21st-century Big O. There’s also an executive culture - black and white - of low tolerance for knuckleheads. Exceptions being generational talents like Iverson. And even there, there’s no place for them after the star dims. Scratch the players who did grumble about race and you’ll invariably find some personal grievance. Pippen’s contract being a prime example. High functioning teams have players gelling within their abilities in understood roles. No one cares who they are otherwise. Gammas can’t understand is that the Alpha on an elite team doesn’t resent teammates’ lesser talents. He resents failure to consistently do the things they can do, with maximum effort, when needed. Hence Jordan’s unshakable confidence in the stone cold Kerr and exasperation with the vastly more talented Kukoc.

The respect is for mental strength, drive, and character.

The famous practice fistfight was recently revised by Jordan, but the details are irrelevant. Jordan was notoriously demanding on his teammates, even by NBA star standards. Not hard to understand from an apex Alpha in a closed world perspective. Jordan tried to intimidate Kerr and learned Kerr would trade punches with the much bigger, stronger, faster apex Alpha of the league before he’d back down. Jordan reflected on his actions after being kicked out of practice in a later interview.

I'm in the shower and I'm saying, look, I just beat up the littlest guy on the f--king court. And I felt about this small. So I get in the car, I called back to the Berto Center and I said, 'Please give me Steve Kerr's number.' I call Steve and I apologize. 'Hey, look, man, it had nothing to do with you.' You know, I feel bad.

He earned my respect, you know, because he wasn't willing to back down to be a pawn in this whole process.

According to Kerr “We talked it out, and it was probably, in a weird way, the best thing that I ever did, was stand up for myself with him because he tested everybody he played with, and I stood up to him … From that point on, our relationship dramatically improved and our trust in each other, everything.”

I feel like I passed the test and he trusted me more afterwards.

Photo by Manny Millan for Sports Illustrated

It’s not hard to understand. Kerr showed he won’t be intimidated by any challenge on the court. So Jordan knew he could trust him in any cauldron. Note to Gammas - this meant getting punched in the face and losing a fight in front of his teammates and staff. Mortifying, right? But he won Michael freakin’ Jordan’s personal respect as a man and a basketball player. He’s not expected to be a superstar - that wasn’t his role. He was to take care of the ball and knock down shots with ruthlessly execution no matter the pressure. Kerr was on the floor in crunch time for three Bulls titles including his career-defining moment. With time running out in Game 6 with a 3-2 series lead over the Jazz, Jordan declined the final shot and hit an open Kerr. Who calmly drained the championship-winning bucket. The fight wasn’t the only factor, but it was a symbolic one. And cycles back to Kukoc and the interview. An Alpha has to to trust his guys, but the guys have to be trustworthy. The all-time greatest finisher needs to be as confident his assist gets converted as he is that he’d make it. A fragile, inconsistent or mentally weak player can’t offer that. Gammas hate sports because words don’t matter and there’s no where to hide from accountability.

On the other hand, respect earned is a lifetime thing.

There are few other bonds that compare to the guys you can go to war with.

The applicable point is that sports are a unique meritocratic environment with clearly defined rules and goals. Most players won’t be stars. Learning how to sublimate ego while honestly recognizing abilities is invaluable in any context. So is refusing to be cowed. Steve Kerr’s life history clearly indicates he’s an Alpha. But on the NBA court, he’s a role player. A situational Delta. This isn’t an inner conflict. It’s a lesson. He applied his Alpha drive, pride, and confidence to become the absolute best role player he was capable of being. A career 6 ppg scorer who managed to play 15 NBA seasons, with 5 rings and an unearthly 45.4% 3-point percentage. And any profile that submits to the realities of the context can benefit in this way. At any level. And since appropriate measures of humility and confidence are critical aspects of high status self-valuation… That’s why sports are so often recommended.

That’s long enough. It’s an introduction to a possible theme - like the last post on growing up X. A foundation for different topics and reflections without a bunch of background. For now, if you have kids, help them understand team success as well as individual skills. Gamma boomer parenting meant I had to figure this out myself, and was never as good as I could have been. Over time, I learned out how leverage my unusual cognitive makeup and obsessive conditioning to become an effective role player. But later than I should have, were anyone paying attention. Pay attention.

Wolfram von Eschenbach and his squire, 1305-1315, Codex Manesse, Zurich,