There's No "Me" In Sportsmanship, Is There?

On March 13, Hopkins defeated Shakopee 49-46 in four overtimes in the semifinal of the Minnesota Class 4A Boys Basketball Tournament in Minneapolis.  A Hopkins player hit the game-winning shot from half court at the buzzer in the fourth overtime, a play that has been run countless times on sports highlight shows.

What America didn't see was what led up to the big shot.  Toward the end of regulation and for the first three overtimes, a Hopkins player stood in the offensive zone with a basketball tucked under his arm, not moving until there were only a few seconds left so his team could take the last shot.  No attempt was made by Shakopee's players to come out of their zone defense, and at least try to foul the Hopkins player.  The Target Center crowd booed unmercifully.

This may have been bad sportsmanship on the coaches' part for using such a stalling tactic, but it's perfectly legal.  Minnesota is one of several states that do not use a shot clock for high school basketball.

But that wasn't all for Hopkins, whose reputation as a glorified all-star team of transfers took a big hit during this tournament.  Following a last-second loss to Lakeville North 84-82 for the 4A championship, some of the players who had just been awarded second-place medals immediately removed them in disgust.

We preach sportsmanship and fair play to so-called student athletes because of this fantasy we all have, sitting in the stands and on the couches, that playing sports will make us better people if we congratulated our opponents for a job well done and by accepting defeat graciously.

That's not how it is for the young athletes, for whom sportsmanship and fair play have long ago taken a back seat.  From the moment they are able to dribble or throw a ball, they have had their entire childhoods (with the exception of schoolwork) devoted to strenuous practice and pressure from coaches and parents to perform at the highest level.  How they develop is often the difference between a scholarship to a major Division I program that might lead to a megabucks pro contract, and a job flipping burgers at McDonalds.

If you are a young athlete whose home situation is so desperate that you need the scholarship and pro contract to help out your family and to get ahead in the world, second place is not gonna cut it.  Failure is not an option.  Nice guys finish last.

It is often said that kids imitate the behavior of the adults around them.  All they have to do is to turn on the TV or their smartphone.  Players who use performance-enhancing substances.  Racial and sexual slurs in the locker room and on the field.  Showing off in the end zone.  Trash talking on social media.  Coaches who freeze the kicker after the ball sails through the uprights.  Need we go on?

Perhaps the Hopkins players might have been "inspired" (if that's the word) by the U.S. Olympic women's hockey team, who lost the gold medal game in overtime to Canada at the Winter Games in Sochi, then pouted as they received their silver medals.  Or how about the 1972 American Olympic men's basketball team?  To this day, not one of those players has accepted their silver medals after a controversial loss to the then-Soviet Union, who won the gold medal at the Summer Games in Munich.

Selfish behavior?  Yes.  Understandable in the heat of the moment?  Yes.  Is this what we want our youth to emulate?  Certainly not.  But they're going to do it anyway.

So don't blame the young man if he throws his second-place "thanks for competing" medal in the garbage after a close defeat.  Blame the adults in his life who brought him to this point.