“The only way to prove that you are a good sport is to lose.”
The thought behind the quote is pretty common, although a short trip to Google told me the line was uttered by Ernie Banks, an American baseball star in the 1950s and ‘60s. We usually believe that being a good sport is easy when one is victorious, and that it is most tested when one suffers the agony of defeat. We hate sore losers, and easily gloat together with the triumphant.
But I strongly disagree with the quote. The responsibility to be a good sport is for both the defeated and the victorious. To be a good sport, the fallen needs to graciously accept the results, and learn from the experience. But a winner also needs to be magnanimous in victory, and honor those whom one has vanquished. A classy winner would say that the loser brought out the best in him. A winner without class would say, “I told you so!”
These thoughts came into my mind while watching the awarding ceremonies after San Miguel Beer won the All-Filipino Conference of the 49th season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) last Friday night.
Deservedly awarded as the Most Valuable Player in the Championship Series was Jericho Cruz. But after Game 4 of the series, TNT manager and one of PBA greats Jojo Lastimosa complained that the San Miguel Beer shooting guard was showboating and called his antics bastusan. “… dinadaan niya lang sa yabang lahat,” Lastimosa added.
Shown on video clips would be Cruz flexing his muscles after making a difficult shot. There was a portion in the game when everything but the final score was settled. Cruz would then mock the TNT guard assigned to shadow him. Was Lastimosa a sore loser or was the decorum of Cruz tantamount to taunting a wounded adversary? Or could it be both?
But since sports afficionados seem to believe that taunting an opponent is an acceptable behavior, I would like to argue that it is not.
The problem of many basketball-crazy Filipinos is that we have mimicked the National Basketball Association (NBA), even the undesirable behavior of many of its players. It would seem that taunting and trash-talking are part of game-plan of some established NBA stars. Gary Payton, Dennis Rodman and even Larry Bird were great trash-talkers. How about Michael Jordan? Once, while Karl Malone was about to make a free throw in a Sunday game, Jordan whispered to the Utah veteran, “The Mailman does not deliver on a Sunday.” A footnote to that incident is that Malone indeed failed to make the shot.
This is not the case in European basketball. NBA stars are certainly more advanced in skills even if basketball around the world is catching up. But NBA stars are way behind in etiquette inside the basketball court. I recall a time when Chinese superstar Yao Ming successively blocked Shaquille O’Neal’s shots. Someone used to the regular NBA antics would have gloated. But Yao Ming just continued to play the game, without showing any emotion.
Trash behavior has become part of the NBA. Indeed, the rules are meant not to stop the taunting but to control them. For example, one rule is that one can wag a finger after blocking a shot, but not in front of an opponent.
In other sports, gentlemanly behavior is the unwritten rule, rather than the exception. In baseball, it is the unwritten rule, honored 99 percent times in observance and only one percent in breach, that someone who hits a homerun should run the bases with head down and not to look at the pitcher. Looking at the pitcher while running would be rubbing salt on an injury.
In tennis, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer would be paragons of sportsmanship. Praising their opponents would be just as natural as the winning itself. One may say that it has become part of tennis protocol for winners to give a word of praise to the losers. But somehow you feel the sincerity when it is Nadal and Federer speaking. Some video clips would show Federer suggesting to his opponent to challenge a call since he believed he has benefited from a miscall. Novak Djokovic may be the least likeable of the big three. But this Serbian great would be the quickest in applauding a great shot coming from the other side of the court.
One epitome of sportsmanship is our own Manny Pacquiao. I say this even if I do not agree with his politics. I remember a fight when he was on the verge of scoring a knockout. He was pummeling his opponent with jabs which used to be as quick as lightning. In this instance, our pambansang kamao practically pleaded to the referee to stop the fight so that he could stop hurting his adversary.
Sports is a metaphor on life itself. In sports and in real life, we are asked to follow the rules and respect our opponents. We accept the results if we lose and be magnanimous when we are victorious.