Fundamental Truth.
Balling with Class
Class and sports are often not associated. And why should they be? Class is often discriminatory in nature and sports is supposed to be all inclusive. Anybody can play sports with anybody right? You don’t need to be rich, good looking or even educated. Sports being all inclusive is not exactly true though. We all know that some level of sports is only for the physical elite, the NBA has been described as the No Boys Allowed League. Even in this country, for a long time Basketball has been described as an elitist “Dada b” sport. If you didn’t have access to DSTV(satellite T.V), you couldn’t watch it. If you didn’t have the right shada (clothes) you couldn’t play it. If you didn’t have the right LAFA (locally acquired foreign accent) you couldn’t talk it. It almost became a “fashion sport” and everybody wanted to play for the wrong reason. Nobody cared about the sport its self.Balling with Class though has nothing to do with a certain class of players or persons. Just as a classy person doesn’t necessarily have to belong to the financially elite in society, a classy baller does not have to have to be part of the skillfully or physically elite. It’s an attitude that one carries themselves with. It’s an attitude born out of pure respect for one’s self and what one does.
So what are classy ballers? These are ballers who appreciate the game in its entirety. These ballers realize that the screen, the box out, the assist, the rebound, the V cut and the mid range jumper are as just as important as the crossover, the dunk, swat (the highlights). These ballers develop their game totally. They work on developing a strong weak hand and not just the killer crossover. They work on their jump for rebounding, jumpers and blocks not just for the highlight breakaway windmill, dunk. They’ll take the big shot if they have to but give it up for a player in a better position (a la Grant, who had scored just one point in each of the previous two games but more than made up for it with tireless defense and hustle under the boards, eschewed a forced shot and instead passed the ball back out to Paxson for the winning three in the '93 finals).
These Players have great respect. They respect the position of the referee, and respect it regardless of the human being holding the whistle. They respect the position of the coach, regardless if he’s Phil Jackson or Bob Santo(R.I.P). They respect the game so you won’t find them standing at the rim after missing a wide opened lay up looking at their hand. They won’t beg the referee to change the call while some one is about to score. They don’t complain about the ball, the court, or the rim. These players respect their opponents and realize that their opponents are not their enemies. They play hard but not dirty. They know that after the game it’s all over.
When these players take the court they bring out everything. They compete as much with themselves as much as they compete with their opponents. They box out, they grab rebounds, they hustle, they run the floor ,they’ll call for a sub when their tired, they’ll criticize and encourage when necessary. After the game they’ll shake hands with the opponents and officials no matter how big the game is, regardless of whether the game ended in a win or a loss. They understand that the nature of sports is such that you can play well and loose or play badly and win. They see defeat as a chance to work on mistakes and victory as reward for hard work.
Balling with Class is Papa’s(Patrick Gameli, now captain of the C.E.P.S team) new found calm attitude as against the big bully image of the past(I think he’s found Jesus). Balling with class is the quote on Benjamin Debrah's (Hoops and UEW) facebook page ("I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot"...skywalker) and to a large extent his game(Still not sure pretty but the kid's improved a lot). Balling with class is the Greater Accra basketball league, where a large chunk of players don’t get paid and sacrifice a lot to play but still give out a 110%. Balling with class is the Spanish Olympic team in Beijing that lost to USA in the prelims by about 30 but gave them one hell of a game in the finals. Balling with class is the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons team with little known players winning an NBA title with pure grit and a ferocious “D for Defense”.
There’s a lot of classy balling going on all around us, but there could be more and it could be far more consistent. When we ball with class we can always leave the court with our heads up, because we know we’ve given our all. We know that whether we win or lose we’ve done the right things, and that’s what class is: doing the right thing regardless of what it is, doing the right thing when you really don’t want to or even have to. It’s doing the right thing when it not convenient. It’s a concept that’s universal and could even help us as a people.