OK, I’ll admit it. Every March my attention turns to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
It’s a tradition of sorts…something that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.
Once the brackets are announced, a quick review determines my selections, and my attention turns to watching the competition unfold.
As the field narrows to the sweet sixteen, then the elite eight, then the final four…the emotion, the excitement, and the enthusiasm of the players and fans become contagious. It’s like reading a great book that you just can’t put down because you want to know how it ends.
Then comes the championship game. And sometimes, like last night, it reminds you of the parallels between the games we play and the lives we live.
Two teams facing off for the title of National Champion. One a perennial powerhouse with multiple championships and a storied past under one of the best to ever coach the game. The other a small school with a coach, who wasn’t even born when Coach K started his coaching career, leading a team into a game where many argued they would be outmatched, and others clinging to the hope for a storybook ending of the sort that made the movie Hoosiers so powerful.
It was a game that lived up to, and perhaps went beyond, the inevitable hype that led up to it in the two days between the semi-finals and the championship game.
And in the end, the underdog team from Butler University watched the last shot attempt from mid-court hit the backboard and bounce off the front of the rim as time expired and a 25-game win streak came to an end.
So close to the perfect storybook ending…a fraction of an inch away from a highlight that would have become an instant classic.
And in defeat, the team from the small college that came into a game many predicted they would lose by double digits showed class and dignity as they held their heads high even in defeat, losing by a mere two points and coming within a whisper of victory.
It was one of many lessons from the 2010 Final Four that we should all remember every day…What matters really isn’t whether you win or lose, it really is all about how you play the game and about how you manage yourself in the difficult situations that will inevitably be a part of your life.
We saw it in the semi-finals when a coach dropped to his knees to comfort his injured player, and we saw it again last night when the Butler Bulldogs gave their best both on and off the court.
ACTION ADVICE: Chances are that not everything goes the way your credit union’s team wants it to go every day. Members get upset, systems fail, and unexpected things happen. The question the leader needs to ask is: How well are we leading ourselves during those times when things aren’t going the way we had hoped? Are we giving our best, accepting the result, and holding out heads high so that we are setting the example for those we lead?
