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Spurs Preseason Game Is All About Play

October 29th, 2007 | thehighcalling.org

Reading Craver’s post about insane soccer parents, I got to thinking about competitive sports.

This weekend, I went to a preseason Spurs game against the Houston Rockets. It was the last game of preseason, and I’ve never seen anything like a preseason game.

Early in the game, the players were giving encouragement to <i>the opposing team</i> after good plays. Coach Popovitch gave one Houston player a big hug during an early timeout.

Don’t get me wrong. I like good competitive play. I want the Spurs to get a fifth championship this season. I enjoy the intensity of a high stakes playoff game.

But this game was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Men playing ball. Playing. Sure, it was work for them, but at times they seemed to be enjoying excellent basketball no matter which side it came from.

That’s how my kids viewed the game. Lyle is only three, so he loves a good dunk whether Tim Duncan does it or Yau Ming or anyone else. He loves a good three pointer. He loves a good set of passes leading up to the basket. CJ, my six-year-old, understands the game. She reminded me several times, “We’re cheering for the guys in <i>white</i>.”

“That’s right, honey.”

Then Rafer Alston nailed a great shot for the Rockets, and CJ cheered. She couldn’t help it.

It makes me wonder about my work. I am a very competitive person. Very. I try to direct this inwardly so that I push myself to do better and provide better services. That’s the root of HighCallingBlogs.com by the way. I just thought I needed to put this social media knowledge to work.

And a lot of my work feels like play at times. Finessing a sentence. Suggesting a verse to a writer. Tweaking a metaphor. Offering a new transition.

If I’m not careful, my play can turn competitive. Could my edits become a way for me to slamdunk on the writer? God help me. Sometimes I’m like that.

All of us are stuck between this contradiction.

First, we know that iron sharpens iron. Competition is biblical. Competition can be healthy and good and godly. I don’t want the Spurs to turn into playful wimps come playoff season. I want them to WIN. And that is okay. They rise to greater levels of excellence because they must do so in order to defeat opposing teams.

But there’s another side to it. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Cooperation and teamwork is healthy too.

We need competition within teams and between teams. But we also need cooperation and play. God help us know when to work together and when to work in competition. Let me borrow a tagline from my boss here: That kind of wisdom is the high calling of our daily work.


Viewing 7 Comments

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    I always struggle with questions of competition. How much is healthy and how much is just hurtful and selfish. (So, let's agree to forego a game of Scrabble if we ever get the chance to play!)
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    Ooh, I'm pretty competitive too. But we used to tease my college friend (also a Spurs fanatic) about how competitive she was - she once swallowed all of the Monopoly pieces in play because she didn't want to lose.

    PS - I wrote a blog about High Calling Blogs a couple weeks ago. Hope it sent a little traffic your way.
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    Mark, Got your note over at the Lounge. with regard to following blogs, I am one of the editors of Episcopal Cafe and have to monitor somewhere along the lines of 200 feeds for that responsibility. That's why I needed to reorganize how I read them. I tend to read a lot, and comment some.

    Also, I want to start blogging in your community, but I got a note from RLP that he wanted to contact me, and so I was holding out until I heard from him--and I haven't yet. Not sure if he didn't get my note with my email address or what, but I'm happy to start blogging at my "cubicle" whenever I get the go ahead to do so.

    Now on topic with this post, I, like you, see social media as a huge opportunity, and it's one that is somewhat anathema to competition because its nature, at least from the higher view, is more about cooperation and collaboration. But, for that matter, so is TEAMWORK!

    I'm a social media strategist by day, so I worry I may become overly meta if I'm blogging about work. But a big part of what I do is reconcile work and faith by putting what I know professionally to work vocationally -- and, bringing this round right, that's why I volunteer for the Episcopal Cafe!
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    L.L., you would destroy me in Scrabble. In on the other hand am virtually undefeatable in Lord of the Rings Risk. So much so that people won't play with me anymore. : (

    spaghettipie, I'm not sure I'd call myself a Spurs fanatic. I do like to watch them play. And, yes, we noticed your post! Did I not comment? Shame on me. It's been a crazy time balancing the public side of blogging and the private construction side. Very very difficult.

    Helen, great to hear you! Your comment reminded me that I ought to update everyone on the state of the blog network. I'm not sure specifically what Gordon has in mind, but feel free to drop him an email reminder.

    I'm going to be bold here and say, Social media isn't just an opportunity. It's going to figure prominently in the future of communications. Get on board or get left behind.
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    let's see - those are sports teams of some kind, right? (giggle)

    thanks for the book suggestion - I'll get it for her quickly. And thanks for sharing that there were tears of frustration - she has a "friend" teaching high school chemistry as a 1st year teacher about 800 miles away and he is struggling too - and thinking the mission field in Turkey was much easier if you can imagine.
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    I thought everyone from that neck of the woods was a Spurs fanatic?

    (Interestingly, I paused for a moment before writing that word in the first comment because I knew you had not confessed to be a fanatic. But then, I decided to go for it. :) )
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    Hey Marcus: I'm just a tad tardy on catching up on my favorite blogs, but this entry struck a chord for me.

    Now that I have taken a demotion at work, it is fascinating to me that my peers apparently see me in a new light. I didn't think we were "competitors" previously, but now that I moved from the fast track to the daddy track, people have opened up to me in very surprising ways. They seem comfortable telling me what's really going on in their lives, where their jobs stink, and what is tearing them down. I thought I was always the kind of person that someone could share honestly with, but I've noticed in the past few months that people are much more open than they have ever been. Apparently, now I'm "safe."

    It's sad, when I think about it (so I don't!) Anyway, apparently there is more competition at work than I realized.

    Blessings! Tom

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