Steve, Archie and LaBron: A study in character

It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game that counts.

  --Lessons I learned at Pappy's Knee, and other joints

   I have a close personal friend who has done a lot for me, not the least of which is introducing me to Special Olympics in general and the SO basketball program in particular. Through Special Olympics basketball I have had the opportunity to meet Steve Barnett, a magnificent chap who coaches my friend's SO basketball team. Coach Barnett is a man of character who cares more for sportsmanship than he does about winning. (He still doesn't grasp the fact that HOV lanes are an environmental issue and not transportation issue, but then none of us are perfect). I've been to games that Barnett's team could have won if he had just kept his best players on the court, as the team he was playing did. But Barnett insists everyone on the team sees significant game action even if it costs his team a W. But that's what the Special Olympics is all about and why I really think it is "pecial."

I began thinking about Coach Barnett when I read this item by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. You don't have to read the whole thing because here is the significant portion:

When I was a boy I was intrigued by Archie Manning, one of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks who played for its worst team, the New Orleans Saints. Season after season good ole' Archie would be pummeled by defensive ends and Linebackers who came charging through his porous offensive line to maul him into the gridiron. Never one to complain, Manning took the beating and continued to clock up impressive stats year after year, even as his team continued to lose. Why stay with a team so awful that its fans wore brown paper bags over their heads? Why not be traded to a team that had a chance? I never found the answer to that question. But after Arching Manning retired two of his sons followed him into the NFL and became two of its greatest quarterbacks with his eldest son, Peyton, ranking as perhaps the greatest of all time. Only a father who is truly his sons' hero can inspire them to follow so fully in his footsteps and only a father who has displayed such enormous loyalty and dedication can raise children who, amid being rich and famous, are widely regarded as possessed of high character. So maybe old Archie got his reward in the end after all. Not a Super Bowl but two sons who won Super Bowls and who are models of sportsmen as gentlemen. This is the reward that character, rather than a championship, can bestow. It's a lesson that LeBron James, who clearly bought into the 'winning is everything' mindset, ought to take to heart. When James dumped Cleveland this week - without the courtesy of even informing the team directly - in order to artificially manufacture a championship team with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh at the Miami Heat, he demonstrated that what really counts in sports is not character but victory, not loyalty but success. Yes, we all want to win, and no, none of us enjoy losing. But the price we're prepared to pay for our victories is that which will determine our essential character.