I met my newest hero a couple years ago. His name is Kenny Sailors.
He is credited with inventing “the jump shot as an alternative to the two-handed, flat-footed set shot.” He won an NCAA championship, and he played in the NBA. He was married to his sweetheart for sixty years.
The genesis for that jump shot came from playing one-on-one with his much taller brother, who told him “you better find another game, this isn’t your game. This game is for big men, tall men.” From that time together, Kenny got an idea. One day he tried it – a jump shot where he jumped and, at the top of the jump, he shot. Kenny says about his taller brother, “His feet were on the ground, he hadn’t even left the floor.” His brother immediately told him “Kenny, you may have something there. You better develop that shot.”
Remember, in those days, players were taught to never leave the floor – on offense or defense. Kenny didn’t listen and became a pioneer, a radical thinker pushed by his desire to succeed at the game he loved.
So he went to work on that jump shot. He says, “It took years. It didn’t happen overnight to get the jump shot, but it was the idea behind it.”
Others saw it and began emulating this new idea and the movement began. Basketball would never be the same. Kenny revolutionized the game.
As I watched this man, I found myself so drawn to him, wishing I could spend a day just getting to know him. He is funny. Very humble. Authentic. His has great love for his wife. Yet it was the way he spoke about his relationship with Jesus Christ that really moved me.
“As an old man, 90 years of age, I have experienced much in my lifetime, and all of it wasn’t good, all of it wasn’t bad. But one thing that has stood the test of time is God. He has satisfied me in a way that all of the fame and success could never do. Nothing does compare with my experience with Christ and the life I have had in him. Nothing in this world that can even come close to it.”
I have heard or read words like this from others, but this was different. It wasn’t just the words, as piercing as they are. It was the way he said them. (You’ve got to watch the full video!)
Then, in the video, he turns to one of my favorite subjects – glory and our pursuit of it.
“I am not in the Hall of Fame. So far I have never made it. If I were to make the Hall of Fame today, oh, you know, it would be nice. I mean I am a human being just like everybody else. But I belong to the greatest Hall of Fame that any man or woman can ever belong to, and when you belong to that, and know you belong to it, you don’t worry about these Halls of Fame that men create down here. They don’t mean that much to you.”
Here is a man acknowledging his hunger for glory. I so appreciated his authenticity but also his bold honesty. After stating this hunger as something common to all humans, he doesn’t stop there. Kenny declares that his pursuit finds its greatest satisfaction in the glory God promises us. He then states the expulsive power of a new affection by announcing that, when this eternal glory is really grasped, the glory this world promises just fades in comparison.
Oh, how I wish I could get this seasoned, wise man alongside every athlete today as he or she passionately pursues this fading glory. How I wish they could hear his heart and wrestle with this issue like he has.
Thanks, Denny Burk, for the introduction. Maybe my blog will introduce Kenny to some others like yours did for me. Maybe this blog will awaken in others the recognition of this pursuit of glory as something we all share as humans. Maybe this blog will stir others to want to revolutionize sports like Kenny did, not so much by coming up with a new way of shooting but by coming up with a new focus on playing, one where the focus is on the pursuit of this eternal glory – a revolution not so much on how we play the games but why we play them.
That’s the revolution I look for – sports played with a passion for the glory of God. That’s the redemption of sports I seek.
Thanks, Kenny Sailors, for reminding me this revolution won’t happen overnight. Thanks for inspiring me to keep working on it, praying for it. It is the idea of this revolution that makes it all worthwhile.
