sports and political correctness

[Don]

Well, I'm not sure PC is the right word here, but I'm talking about say when your team is down 0-3 in a 7 game series and they interview the guys they always say like: "We got to do this one game at a time." even though the more correct response would be: "I think we're doomed." Today I saw an article where Mark Cuban says he hates the Spurs and he wouldn't even talk to the owner in a meeting elsewhere unrelated to basketball, and most of the comments seem to be about how he's not classy. I mean is he supposed to say everytime he plays the Spurs he is reminded that we are all blessed in this world to be playing the great game of basketball, and there are no losers in this world as long as the honor reigns above all? If you want something that fake go read Japanese manga where everyone is like friends with everyone else and there are no losers ever.

I remember there was a theme out of Captain Tsubasa where it's like Tsubas's honor has convinced his fans to not boo the other side because that'd be dishonorable. I mean yes Captain Tsubasa is about as related to soccer as Dragonball is to fighting, but you're talking about a sports where the pride of entire nation is often at hand and people got hurt/killed over these things, and then you bring honor into this? I think Bill Simmons on ESPN a real home court should be one where you've to be worried about fans jumping in to start beating up refs, and indeed what would home court advantage without some occasional lopsided calls? Bill Simmons was saying that if NBA Playoffs was a movie, then the Denver Nuggets would rally in George Karl's absence and go on to win the Championship just as he returns from his cancer treatment. In reality, the Nuggets will probably get bounced in round 1 because they're missing their head coach.

A few years ago I saw something from Onion and it was like "Cardinals apologize for winning against the underdog in the World Series", and it seems like a lot of people only want to watch that kind of stuff. But the underdog, in the real world, is supposed to lose most of the time.

[Kupek]

It's a coping mechanism, Don. Have you never played competitive sports? They're not bullshitting. That's how they have to think about it. They have to convince themselves that they can win. If they can't - if they can't cope - and they don't believe that they can win, then they won't. When you don't believe you can win, you don't play to win. You play to survive. And it's different. Once you lose the belief that you can win, you've been broken, and it's all over.

I played soccer when I was younger. When we scored a goal to make it 1-0, my thought was "Good, now we're on path to win. We just have to keep doing this." But when we gave up a goal to make it 0-1, I thought "It's just one goal. It's not that big of a deal. We can score two more and win this." You look at the situation differently depending on which end you're on.

In jiu-jitsu, when I pass someone's guard, I think "Good, now I'm in control. I can continue to control them and work towards a submission." If someone passes my guard, I think "Minor setback. I know I can reverse this position and still gain control." This is what you have to do. You have to constantly look at it from the perspective of "I can still win."