When you write a column it’s not uncommon to hear from others time and again about how “you’ve got a platform” and of all of the topics that you “should be addressing”. To this point both with Blue Star Media and previously with ESPN I’ve stayed on topic with basketball and recruiting. This time around I’m still going to use basketball as a setting to go down a completely different path. One that, unfortunately, continues to find its way into the news headlines more and more often.
When I coached I used to get to the gym long before the games. At every school I worked we almost always had some “Best Seat in the House” promotion going on and I would relax on a courtside sofa or in some Lazy Boy chairs mentally taking it all in. There’s just something about a dark, empty arena with just a few lights shining on a floor that allows you to get focused.
Ironically, the quiet in that setting can be just as loud in your mind as it will ultimately be in the stands once game time rolls around. Join me there for a moment today. I realize you can’t close your eyes and continue to read but put yourself in that solemn place that has meant so much to all of us. Let your imagination look around the arena with me for a just little while. This place is home. It’s where we feel alive. It’s where we feel comfortable…and it’s where we feel safe.
The world we live in is changing drastically with every passing day. Our schools that symbolize our future, our hope and the promise of the next generation are becoming battlegrounds. Look up into the darkened bleachers and you can see faint images of the high school students of Columbine, the grade schoolers from Sandy Hook and the undergrads just wading into collegiate life at Umpqua Community College.
Now think of the fans of our sport that come to games for a night out, a little entertainment and sometimes simply a brief escape from the harsh realities of everyday life. Look once more to another section of the our arena and in the shadows you can see some folks who, for those same reasons, attended a movie in Aurora, Colorado as well as some music fans who were looking forward to taking in a recent concert at the Bataclan Theater in Paris.
Keep looking around the empty grandstands and concourses and you’ll see glimpses of people who simply went to work in San Bernardino or attended a Bible Study in Charleston. Joining them are some folks who had the misfortune of being at a Planned Parenthood Center in Colorado Springs less than a month ago and random individuals from the streets of Isla Vista, California. Even Individuals who worked in military centers in Chattanooga or those serving our county at Ft. Hood or in the Washington Navy Yard are also part of the ever growing crowd in our minds.
While we may be sitting in an empty gym, we are far from alone. The apparitions we can see in our imagination represent our family, our friends, our neighbors and our teammates. They are our mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. Though you may not have known them personally, you know them in your heart. People who went to school or work, individuals who simply went to church or put on our country’s uniform not realizing that they would not never return home again.
I’m not here to rant about gun control laws. It’s certainly not my place and the sheer magnitude of the number of weapons already out there makes it a seemingly moot point anyway. The latest finger pointing seems to be at the mental health component of those individuals intent on doing harm to others as if it’s some recent insightful revelation. Really? I didn’t realize the taking of innocent lives had ever been categorized as an act of the sane and rational.
So, just where am I going with this? Whether you look at the limited landscape of the athletic world or the wider scope of everyday life, we’ve lost our respect for anyone not seeing things exactly as we do. Our tolerance for those who look, act, dress, work or worship different than we do is at an all-time low. And somewhere along the line, it became personal.
That lack of respect shown for those walking a different path is staggering. Elements of our society…a supposed enlightened generation…still exhibit prejudice on the basis of both inherent and chosen characteristics as if the past one thousand years never happened. Race, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation still provide instantaneous perspectives for shallow individuals who cannot see beyond what appears in their own mirror.
Even with people’s daily actions, the thin skin we all walk through the world with today is scary. Road rage, sports arguments, relationship issues and social media slights are just the tip of an iceberg of stupidity that have led to fights, assaults and even death. The arrogance that it takes to believe that the way you see things is the only acceptable viewpoint gives credence to the mental health concerns all by itself.
Even in our own basketball world the temperatures have risen. Attend any high school or club game and listen to some of the fans and parents in the stands. Officials deserve combat pay for the verbal abuse they take from people who treat a bad call as if it were questioning their sacred mother’s virtue. And the abuse starts at the tip as if it’s a rite for any “true” fan that paid the price of admission. Just last week a high school coach was knocked out by a parent. The reason? The coach was enforcing an existing team rule that required players to ride the bus home with the team. Mom wasn’t on board with that and now faces a felony charge. Impressive example of parenting there. If sports are a microcosm of the “real world”, we’re certainly upholding the darker side of our part.
The recent terrorist attack in Paris included an attempt by two suicide bombers to enter a soccer stadium. While the explosions occurred before they entered the facility, the sports possibilities are very real and cannot be ignored. That quiet arena we’ve been sitting in is losing its invincibility to the world outside and the risks are coming in. All you have to do is look around and see the reminders we’ve been picturing in our minds.
In 25 years of coaching at the Division I level I don’t recall ever being nervous before a game. I could be excited or wired but that might have just been the pregame Starbucks kicking in. The philosophy that most games are won or lost before they’re played always gave me an element of comfort. Not so much these days. I’m worried that the tragedies on the front page may be bound for the sports headlines in the not so distant future. Do I think some human ticking time bomb or terrorist is in line at the ticket booth? Maybe not yet, but then again the folks diving for cover in the middle of a movie, ducking shrapnel at a Christmas party…or hearing explosions just outside that soccer stadium probably didn’t think so either.
It’s important to remember that the many of the events I’ve referenced and more like them were not instigated by Isis, al-Qaeda or some other foreign entity. The guy behind you in line at the grocery store, the quiet neighbor down the street or the individual seated next to you at the game may be the next to snap. Athletics is inherently an emotional environment. Beyond the referee focused, unhappy fans we mentioned earlier you’ve got parents fuming at coaches and even other players. To some there’s an illusion that an agenda exists against their daughter or that a scholarship can be lost in 32 minutes of play. While essentially not true, folks with stresses in the outside world could be the ones ready to overreact to a misperception in the gym. Everyone needs to take a breath, relax and see the bigger picture.
It was just announced that Disney, SeaWorld and Universal are installing metal detectors. If Mickey Mouse is worried then maybe we should be as well. We’ve had similar security in some settings for several years now but those are limited and definitely in the minority. Sadly, it may be the direction we’re headed and if being proactive keeps the Barbarians at the Gate and the crowd safe…then the landscape of athletics may need to change.
In this holiday season I urge you to embrace acceptance, tolerance and respect. Sports is a common ground that can bridge many of the differences that seem to be trigger points for so much of the prejudice and anger behind these senseless attacks. While Peace on Earth may still be on Hallmark cards it’s harder and harder to find in reality. Hopefully we can still keep the peace in the gym.
