March Mad-…errr…Sadness
As we watched Kentucky’s uber-talented squad lose to WVU tonight, I was exchanging texts with a highly intelligent buddy. We both agreed that this year’s tournament marked the year that youth basketball’s ills finally surfaced on the court. Not the courtroom, where they’ve been for years, but on the court broadcasted into our respective living rooms.
Scrappy Butler University defeated a more talented Kansas State team. The same holds true for the above-mentioned contest. It’s also why Michigan State will defeat Tennessee tomorrow. The Duke-Baylor game is an anomaly.
Like MSU, Butler’s team consists of kids who need to win as part of their character. Winning defines them because their physical tools are great, but not of the NBA’s traditional ilk. That’s why I respect the hell outta them.
To win, it requires a know-how combined with a level of determination cultivated by loses. And when your physical talents are so superior at such an early age - like Kentucky’s starting 5 - winning isn’t something that’s learned. It just happens. Because when you’re a tween, or teen, winning is almost always the result of being physically supreme, but as these players enter their early 20s, the importance of mental talent grows and evens out the playing field. Thus, Michigan State, Butler, and teams built like them will - from now on - defeat richly talented teams like Kentucky whose players never learned to win.
As many athletes are told, the need to win is vastly different from the want to win. And needing to win is an attribute usually instilled in competitors who have lost, sometimes frequently, and work harder to not just improvie their personal performances, but to win contests - any contest, but especially when it counts.
For actors, bankers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and anyone striving for success, the need to win - to achieve - is greatest when failure has been felt often. Loses have to be personal. They have to count. As an investor, or observer of life, you bet on the entity that has lost many times, often in heartbreaking fashion, but that has constantly learned and added fuel to a fire. The supremely talented folk that hasn’t been tested is bound to fail and shatter if such failure is encountered after too many victories.
-The David Xperience
