As I was perusing the sports pages this morning, I came across and interesting article comparing Derek Jeter’s comments after the 2001 World Series to Giannis’s comments after the first round of this year’s NBA Playoffs. It got me thinking about what is happening in the wide world of sports , where winning is now an afterthought rather than the ultimate goal.

“Michael Jordan played 15 years, won six championships. The other nine years was a failure? That’s what you’re telling me? I’m asking you a question, yes or no? It’s the wrong question. There’s no failure in sports. There’re good days, bad days. Some days you are able to be successful, some days you are not. Some days it is your turn, some days it’s not your turn. And that’s what sports is about. You don’t always win.” – Giannis Antetokounmpo

ESPN

If you’re like me, you read these comments and they immediately make you squirm. The Bucks just came off a regular season where they were the top seed going into the playoffs, and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

By all accounts, the Bucks, and Giannis, failed. I bet if you asked his Airness if a season where you don’t win the Finals is a failure, he would tell you it is before the question was asked.

For some reason, modern sports have put less focus on winning, and more focus on “improvement” or player’s feelings. It’s a shame that fans have to watch, as athletes spend more time worrying about their contracts, commercials, and being political instead of showing a true desire to win.

In 2001, after the Yankees lost the World Series in Game 7, Derek Jeter said “If we don’t win the World Series, the season’s a failure.” Bingo. In the midst of the Boston Bruins chasing NHL history, on their way to the best season in NHL history, Brad Marchand encapsulated this sentiment.

Trust me, I am no Bruins fan by any stretch of the imagination, nor am I a Brad Marchand fan, but I would rather have someone with his mentality in my locker room, than someone who says losing isn’t failure.

“Before we were going through this season, if you asked any of the guys on this team who owned any of those records, nobody would know, because nobody cares. Because it’s not about the regular season. If you win the Presidents’ Trophy but you don’t win the Cup, nobody cares.”

NBC SPORTS

That is exactly what a competitive athlete should say and what every fan should want to hear. But, Howard Bryant at ESPN opined that “The players who embrace the binary ally themselves with fans in the suggestion that they care as much about winning as the ticket buyers. It buys them the currency of protection.”

Sorry, but no. Professional sports is one of the few endeavors where there is always a winner and a loser, a champion, and a league full of teams who wish they were. These athletes aren’t trying to buy protection from the fans, they are showing that they understand what it means to be in professional sports.

There is one winner, and a lot of losers. One team succeeds, and the others fail. It’s not that complicated to understand.

To put this into perspective, at the beginning of every season, every team has a record of 0-0. Some teams, on paper, are better than others. But, every single team starts a season saying “this is our year.” No self respecting team starts a season saying “I hope we win more games than last season, even if we miss the playoffs” or “as long as we win the first round of the playoffs, I’m happy.”

Apparently, some writers think this should be the mentality taking over. This is indicative of the weird shift from meritocracy to participation trophies. From focusing on achieving goals to focusing on feeling good about yourself.

When every team starts the season with goal of winning the championship, that inherently means that all but one team will fail.

As the great Ricky Bobby once said, “if you’re not first, you’re last.” When you set a goal or a standard for yourself or your team, and you don’t achieve it, you have failed.

To go back to Mr. Bryant’s article, he finds solace in the fact that there are more Giannis’s in sports. He is thrilled that players are using their “market power” to focus on mental health, work-life balance, political world view, and labor relations.”

To be fair, I think the Players’ Associations should focus on mental health, and they inherently focus on labor relations. But look at what this jackwagon wants athletes to focus on: work-life balance and political world views? Get out of here. Notice that for some reason, we left out winning and seeking to improve the product on the court.

“The Jeter position always felt like an unrealistic pander to the ridiculousness that is the overwrought and unrealistic expectation by Yankees fans, for only one team wins the final game of the season. The wonders and discoveries of a season cannot be negated by not winning a championship. By these metrics, the team that doubles its win total from the season before is a failure, as is the team that makes the playoffs for the first time in 25 years, as is the team that started the season losing its first 10 games but finished 10 games over .500, as is the team that discovered it had a future Hall of Famer on its roster. Thirty teams, 29 failures.”

ESPN

This quote covers exactly why Giannis feels empowered to say that losing is somehow not a failure. Writers like Howard Bryant want to look at sports through a lens where competition is less important than athletes becoming political figures. Howard thinks load management is good and “work-life balance” during the season is something that should be focused on.

Iron man streaks must be relics of an era we should never strive to attain, because heaven forbid athletes focus on their craft and strive to achieve greatness. Rather than focus on winning, we should wait to see what Giannis thinks about geopolitical issues. As long as Giannis feels like his team did fine, we should view their horrible playoff performance as a success.

Can a team have small victories throughout a season? Sure. Can a team improve year after year and give fans hope for the future? Absolutely. But what do any of these minor victories mean if they do not lead to a championship? Not a damn thing.

-Drew Pappert

@forestcitysport

*Photo courtesy of WMTV*