The answer is: Actually, Yes.
Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers refused to shake hands with opponents after Cleveland was eliminated from the NBA play-offs. He said he doesn’t like to lose and it’s hard to shake hands with the guys who just ended your season.
Actually, yes, shaking hands is exactly what should occur, tough as that may be.
One of the great traditions in sports is the lining up of teams at the end of an NHL Stanley Cup play-off series. They pass one another on the ice shaking hands as they go.
So that James might understand, these are players who have been pounding on one another in as high intensity a setting as exists in sports.
The personal animosities that develop in the course of the best-of-seven series in the NHL are legendary. The handshakes go on.
Not only is that tradition about preserving sportsmanship, it is done out of respect for the game. No player is bigger than the game and its history.
That is as true in the NBA as in the NHL or any other sport. No one who ever skated an NHL season ending play-off line ever wanted to lose.
James has simply shown that he is not yet ready to be a member of a championship team. In losing, an element of self respect and control in addition to respect for a game bigger than himself was lost in his shuffle off the court.
Race car driver Danica Patrick recently was asked about taking prohibited substances if it would help her win a race and she knew she wouldn’t get caught.
She said, “Well, then, it’s not cheating, is it? If nobody finds out.”
Well, actually yes, it is cheating. To Patrick’s credit she later said she had made a bad joke and apologized. Unfortunately, the concept of legal if not caught had already received its promotion.
An inner compass is what we’re talking about here. It has everything to do with doing what’s right as tough as that may be to define.
Such issues are also about high profile people being an example for others. Patrick tried to do that on the rebound, better the inner compass had worked initially.
Dan Bylsma, the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, said of his star player Sidney Crosby, “Every day doesn’t need to be Sidney Crosby day.”
He said that in the context of Crosby struggling for a couple games in the Stanley Cup finals and Bylsma becoming tired of answering questions of why.
Well, yes, actually every day does have to be Sidney Crosby day, at least during the NHL season. He is a league star who garners much attention due to his talents and brings to the NHL always needed publicity.
No, Crosby will not be the deciding factor in every game, but even that will be a story and that is good for the Penguins and even better for the NHL.
Understandably, players and coaches tire of the constant spotlight on the stars of the game. Fans apparently do not.
Sports leagues and teams today push the individual star as a way to sell the games. Those being the case, those involved cannot then say only shine the light this way when we tell you to.
Conversely, those upon whom the light is shown who take the rewards that come because of it are obligated to act accordingly. Yes, actually, there are obligations.