Lakers vs. Mavericks - Four Thoughts

Four thoughts came to mind in watching the Mavericks sweep the Lakers in the second round of the 2011 NBA playoffs. Like Phil Jackson's kids, I was present for my father's, Clarence "Big House" Gaines, last game.  His last team wasn't very good and they got pummeled. During that game I thought about all the highs and lows that he had experienced in his career. Hated to see him go out that way, but it didn't detract from the great things he had done in basketball, and more importantly, in life.  With so many highs in Phil Jackson's career, it's somewhat fitting that he went out on a low. The good Lord has a sense of humor and has a way of humbling us all.

Tex Winter introduced me to one of my favorite quotes. Tex, contributed the "Everything turns upon a trifle" part and Benjamin Franklin is responsible for the rest. "The Trifle" quote was ever-present in my mind in regards to this series.

Everything turns upon a trifle: “For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for the want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail." 

It truly was the "small things" that contributed to the Lakers downward spiral.  We've all experienced "The Trifle" at some point in our athletic lives and it's always amazing to see how quickly things can flow south.

"If" by Rudyard Kipling crossed my mind:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; 

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;


If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";


If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! 

I've shared Kipling's poem with the kids I've coached and highlighted this verse to them:

"If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same."

I love that this verse appears above the tennis player’s entrance at Wimbledon’s Centre court and love this reading of selected verses of "If" by Roger Federar and Rafael Nadal:

I detested the actions of Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom in the fourth game of this series and I'm certain that Phil Jackson did too.  It goes against the grain of everything Phil stands for in terms of honoring the game and your opponent.