You probably have heard about the 100 - 0 high school girls' baskeball game by now. The Covenant School's basketball team beat the Dallas Academy's basketball team 100 - 0. Both teams apparently tried hard, there was no cheating - that was the score. A clear win.
The aftermath, however, has not been so clear. Covenant School has apologized for its team's performance stating that it was "shameful" and an "embarassment". Usually that type of post-game apology to its fans comes from a team that has just been blown away by the opposition; not from the winning side. My cursory review of the blogosphere indicates that there is wide-spread disgust over the performance of the Covenant School team, its coach and its fans. The Dallas Morning News reports that people want the winning coach to be fired or to quit. The parents of the winning team are also disparaged.
Nothing but praise, however, for the losing team. School officials from Covenant praised the Dallas players "for their strength, composure and fortitude in a game in which they clearly emerged the winner" and posted an apology on the school's website. They even offered to forfeit the game. Somehow the winners became the losers and vice versa. The Dallas girls have been on television giving interviews. I watched one of these spots - the girls come across as very positive, enthusiastic, bright and delightful. One cannot help but feel "sorry" for them, although they clearly do not feel sorry for themselves. I have seen no interviews with the Covenant girls.
What can one make of all of this? Dallas Academy is a small private school with a student body of apparently only 20 girls, 8 of whom are on the basketball team. They have not won a game in the last 4 years. Covenant School is a much larger school, with a total enrolment of over 800 students. The game was clearly a mismatch, and a predictable one at that. If there is to be any fault in this matter, it should go to the organizers of this league who set up the inevitable drubbing and for not having in place a mechanism to limit lopsided games, as exists in other sport matches where young people are involved.
But how about the teams themselves - should the winners be condemned and the losers praised? No. Young athletes are all told the same thing, over and over. It's not about winning, it's about going out there and doing your best. That is what both teams did. Now I agree that "running up the score" is not a polite thing to do. There might have been some discrete, non-offensive ways to make the game 50 - 0, or 100 - 10, instead of 100 - 0. There is, however, a danger in making it too obvious that a team is no longer trying. Purposely missing baskets, tripping over one's shoe-laces so that the other team can score is even more humiliating to your opponent than simply beating them, fair and square. It shows your pity for them, instead of your respect. I would bet that most high school teams never practise the art of pretending that you are trying when you really are not. It reminds me of the popular movie, Rudy, which I hated. As I recall, Rudy was obviously allowed to score a touchdown, near the end of the movie, with the opposing players acting like clowns, falling all over the field. He was then hoisted up on the players' shoulders and paraded around. How humiliating for Rudy, I thought.
The Dallas team came out of this match feeling good about themselves - they did their best against a significantly better team. They were treated as equals, even though their skills were obviously not. They aren't crying about it- so why is everyone else?
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If the Covenant team feels bad about its win, or wants to forfeit the game, then they deserve to lose. Winning graciously is just as difficult a task and they have obviously failed miserably, resorting instead to patronizing and belittling their opponents.
ReplyDeleteAs they say, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose. All that matters is that you have fun. Of course, it's a helluva lot more fun to win.
I hope the Dallas Academy doesn't apply that same "losers are winners" policy to their admissions criteria. . . If so, I can't imagine it's a terribly enriching place to learn.
ReplyDeleteYou're missing a key fact: several reports from the Dallas Morning News and other local papers point out that with four minutes remaining, the Covenant team intentionally stopped scoring at 100-0.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about fairness, pity, and sportsmanship, but when a coach embarrasses his opponent by running down the clock at a symbolic score, he's a lot worse than the kids in Rudy. At least they didn't let him on the field and then start playing keep-away.
A follow-up. The winning team's coach has been fired. He refused to apologize for his team's lopsided win. He apparently took a losing team when he first started coaching and turned it into a championshop contender. He also claims that he did not try to run up the score, played his bench, stopped using a full court press etc. See what he had to say and then you decide whether he did anything wrong:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/012609dnspocovenantnu.2781526.html
"They aren't crying about it, so why is everyone else?"
ReplyDeleteI hope you're right, that the losing team did not feel bad. But I can't imagine that the winning coach gave much thought to their feelings. His conduct apparently was within the rules, but he had an opportunity to mitigate the possible humiliation, and failed to do so. (Not by playing half-heartedly but by, e.g., telling his players, at some point, to only dribble, pass and shoot with their left hands -- which actually is good practice!) The coach is an insensitive clod. Happily, the losing players rose above his moral mediocrity.