Leadership

A True Champion

by Terry Barlow
01/30/25
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I was inspired to watch a former champion respond recently to being totally shut down in the second half of a basketball 🏀 game and held to only half of his average point production. The result of his poor performance was that his team lost an important and very winnable game. Instead of hanging his head, avoiding media and ducking quickly into the locker room, as so many do in that kind of situation, he was quick to congratulate his opponents and made himself available to the many that were reaching out to him, even to the point of smiling good-naturedly and embracing some of them. It was a demonstration of good sportsmanship that I will long remember. His security and confidence were not based on a winning performance, as if he had to prove himself every game all over again. He had proven himself so many times that his confidence in himself had been settled and established long ago. He knew who he was and that was untouchable, even by the most painful of circumstances. All this was evident by the grace with which he carried and conducted himself even after an embarrassment like the one he had just experienced. His sense of well being seemed to go way deeper that any concern about what people thought and what many vocal fans might think.

   As a former basketball player myself (but nowhere near on the level of Curry, of course) I won a modest armful of trophies 🏆.  Those even included an All Star trophy and the net from a championship season. I didn't score a point in the championship game, but was asked to pray the team's pregame prayer. And the one who came off the bench to score the winning points had been on the verge of quitting, but I talked him out of it. So there are definitely other ways to contribute besides scoring points. But probably the trophy that means the most to me was a sportsmanship trophy received unexpectedly for breaking up a fight on the court. The other trophies were in recognition of physical talent, and that is wonderful.👏 But the sportsmanship trophy spoke to a moral trait or quality that someone recognized in my character: that of a peacemaker. And that's even more wonderful, 👏 👏 because blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God. (Matthew 5 v9) Among other things, Steph Curry was functioning as a peacemaker the night he was shut down, and he and his team suffered a humiliating loss. Yes he lost, but he also won a huge victory over his pride! And that served as an inspiring example to his fellow players and the millions of fans, young and old and in between, including myself, that were watching him that night.