Nothing can compare to the electricity, fully saturated with the smell of sweat, that permeates the air as men who tower over most of us battle head to head and hand to hand in search for nothing but net.
As the longest-acting chaplain for any NBA team, having served the 2011 NBA Champions Dallas Mavericks now for over three decades, I’ve become acutely familiar with the feel, smell, and taste of this atmosphere as if it were an extension of my own. It is both rousing and disarming at the same time. I love it. In fact when I am there, I grab it and hate to let it go.
One can’t help but recognize it as soon as you enter an arena. The air hangs thick with anticipation and hunger, consuming anyone who walks into the presence of the players and coaching staff. To say that passion dominates the mood would be an understatement. It is more like an urge, a pure ache for greatness.
When two teams make it to the NBA Finals, five men on the court from each side unapologetically seek to prove who is the best. They are men on a quest – men with one goal, and that goal is nothing short of declaring to the entire world their greatness. We witnessed this together with the Heat and the Spurs battling it out, even taking the sixth game into overtime.
Being a winner, versus the pain of loss
Yet, at the end of the day, one locker room erupts, while the other locker room echoes with the eeriness of an exhausted and depleted quietude. One city cheers, while the other city mourns, licking its wounds. One banner will be raised while the hopes for that same banner will taunt the thoughts of those who fought so hard to claim it, yet fell short.
In sports, as is often the case in life, when one person celebrates – another person cries. One person’s victory means another person’s defeat. One person’s promotion is another person’s stagnation. One person’s hope fulfilled is another person’s hope deferred. To win is great, and just as important is to win in a sportsmanlike manner — with dignity and appreciation for the strengths of a worthy opponent.
So what do we do with disappointment? What do we do with defeat? The same thing every successful person has ever done: We wipe off our sweat, toss our worn and tattered jerseys in the wash, and we move on.
The difference between a person of victory living out his or her destiny and a person who gets stuck in the rut of defeat can be found in how that person views life’s experiences. A victorious person will view his or her life experiences – even the defeats and failures – through the lens of purpose. They will recognize the connecting thread taking them to the destiny God has for them (Jeremiah 29:11). I talk more about this in my book Destiny: Let God Use You Like He Made You (2013).
Can you manage success — and failure?
How you manage, or mismanage, the experiences in your past will have everything to do with your future. Learn from your past; don’t live in it.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed,” NBA great Michael Jordan has said about his career.
The 2013 NBA Championship team has been decided, but 2014 is a story still yet to be written.
From both the winners and the losers of this contest of wills and prowess, there are lessons of character to be applied by everyone who loves the game.
Dr. Tony Evans is founder and senior pastor of the 9,700-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative, chaplain of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and author of ‘God’s Unlikely Path to Success’ and ‘Victory in Spiritual Warfare.’