COURAGE When I was fourteen and a freshman in high school, I already stood 6 feet 3 and weighed 165 pounds. Despite my size, I didn’t go out for the football team; it was basketball I loved. The high school coach, who coached both sports but preferred football, suspected I was afraid of getting hurt. After I made the varsity basketball team that year, he decided to test my courage. During Christmas break, before the drills of official practice began, he arranged a boxing match between me and a visiting alumnus, an all-American college football player who was two inches taller and some fifty pounds heavier than I was. I took a pounding, but because I didn’t back down I think I proved something to the coach. Courage in sports means, in the simplest terms, giving 100 percent for your team. In basketball, if there’s a loose ball, you dive for it; forget that the floor is hardwood. If you go for a rebound and get elbowed in the face, make sure that next time you go back even harder. If you’re playing tough defense and the man you’re guarding takes you into a screen set by a burly forward, fight over the screen.
What do You think about Values Of The Game (1998)?
