After watching the Celtics Lakers game yesterday, being treated to the best competition of the year in the NBA, what I really marveled about was how fierce the competition was and how after the game Lebron James and Jason Tatum had that embrace. It was an embrace of respect and even though they went at it in a well played game, they respected the honor of the tradition and the actual competitive opportunity.
I loved Lebron commenting on competition when he was asked about Bill Russell wearing the Kobe jersey.
It went something like this:
that's the respect at the end of the day we are going to battle, we are going to test each other, we are going to cuss each other out where we are in battle, but at the end of the day when you respect your opponent and you give all you can, the respect is mutual, when you see Bill Russell the respect to Kobe, we would do the same on this end
the respect is mutual
I can't get over how disrespectful Greg Williams was against the concept of competition and respect for opponents. All these great competitors in all sports always loved going against the best. They didn't come into the games trying to figure out how to take them out of the game because they were weak and feared competition. They wanted to go out and do their very best against the best.
To me, the fact that Greg Williams is part of a professional sport, is shocking. Who would want a leader poisoning the competitive spirit of a locker room afraid of wanting to go out and be their very best version of themselves and being willing to take on all comers, including the other team's best player and the very best teams?
Greg Williams is a very poor leader and sets bad examples and teams that hire him may get a guy that can coach the X's and O's but he is a destructive force to the concept of team, of competition, and respect.
What is missed with the Greg Williams thing isn't the criminal part of his actions which has been debated over and over. I feel he deserved some time in jail. At least 90 days, but I can see how others may thing differently.
What is missed is:
He is a poor leader and a weak competitor!
