I got this email today from a friend of mine – Ryan Souders, Head Coach Men’s Soccer at Calvin College:
Not sure if you follow much NBA (Maybe you’ve already seen this). But in the Heat/Pacers series going on right now, the video below happened the other night in game 4.
Paul George has an incredible dunk against the Heat. LeBron James then comes down and hits an absolute bomb of a 3 to end the quarter.
After Lebron hits the shot the two seem to be jawing at each other.
We then find out they are actually each complimenting each other, only to give each a high five before going to their respective benches – MID GAME!!!
Immediately I thought of redefining competition as ‘bringing out the best of…’
After watching the video, I sat back – stunned! Honestly.
This picture is so different than the ones I am used to seeing where the players are taunting and jawing at each other.
I thought about the idea of redeemed competition as “striving with or together…” vs. “striving against” and how this clip seemed to demonstrate the positive impact striving together is designed to have – where it brings out the best of the players involved and they enjoy the challenge that it brings.
Great stuff….would love to see more of this kind of competition.