There was a time when conflicts amongst athletes, coaches and their administrations were held behind closed doors. Opposing parties said their peace, and even if unsatisfied, came out on the other side mostly unscathed. Nowadays those classy meetings are few and far between, making way for conflict resolution held in the court of public opinion, several of which have made headlines in recent weeks. Back and forth he said/she said in modern day social media has degraded the once esteemed athlete from a role model to a checklist on how not to play nice with others.
I have panned the LA Lakers for several years for their continued efforts to assemble the super team. (They aren’t the only ones…) Their recent title was accomplished in a challenging pandemic riddled season; I certainly give them credit for persevering through that epidemically curtailed season. Russell Westbrook was added to the super team this past season with the hopes that he, along with LeBron James and Anthony Davis could march again to a championship. Westbrook came in to tinsel town with the mindset that he should have the ball as the point guard and essentially ’run the show’. Frank Vogel thought otherwise in a league with ball handlers a plenty where most teams are bringing up the ball with any number of three or four players on any given team.
The result was an unhappy Russell Westbrook from the get go. Should Russ have asked Coach Vogel about his point guard game philosophy before inking his deal with the Lakers? Should Vogel have asked Russ about his mindset as a teammate? (In defense of Vogel, in today’s selfish NBA, staffs are seldom bothering to ask about players’ capabilities as teammates anyway.) Should Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka have pressed these questions before signing Westbrook to a forty million plus per year contract, bumping the team payroll to over one hundred sixty million? Hmmm. That would be yes, yes, and, what the… 40 MILL?, uhhh YES!
Add the complaining Westbrook to an injury prone Anthony Davis and a LeBron James who is still great but not the best in the game anymore, and you have a recipe not for a super team, but for a team that cannot make the playoffs. LeBron’s excuse that the Lakers weren’t good was,
”We weren’t on the damn floor together.”. In the end, the fall guy is Frank Vogel who was fired unceremoniously at the end of the season. With cries of foul from Westbrook along with a lack of support from James and Davis, Coach Vogel is probably breathing a sigh of relief knowing he won’t have to deal with this trio again next season.
The Cleveland Browns have been in the basement of the AFC Central for years, minus their trip to the playoffs in 2020 led by quarterback Baker Mayfield. In 2021, Mayfield played through injury for the bulk of the season. His injury set back the Browns squad squashing a reprise of the Browns relevance the season before. Mayfield’s labrum tear prompted honest questions from the Browns front office. The promise from management – Mayfield is the starter for 2022 but the team will search for upgrades – wasn’t well received when he learned that the team was pursuing Deshaun Watson. Watson is a wonderful talent, but he is still under suspension from the NFL due to his, count them, 22 civil lawsuits pending against him for sexual assault.
The Browns could do better in their search for a new quarterback. The signing of a player that may not even be eligible this season doesn’t solve the problem for the Browns at QB. Mayfield feels disrespected that he would actually be replaced, and further disrespect is that his replacement comes from a legal trash heap. I understand his sentiment, but none of this should have played out in public. Mayfield’s ne’er do well public whining will actually cost him money on his next contract anyway. The other problem, Baker doesn’t grasp the fact that we are all replaceable. Labrum repair surgery is not exactly fool proof for a 100% recovery. The Browns absolutely needed to search for a plan B, or at best a plan 1a.
Ronald Acuna Jr. went on a podcast recently and panned his former Atlanta Braves teammate Freddie Freeman. Acuna stated that he wouldn’t miss Freddie Freeman now that he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ronald Acuna Jr. claimed there was friction between he and Freeman especially during Acuna’s rookie season, and that Freeman wasn’t someone Acuna could talk to, ever. Acuna’s feelings were hurt, pooooor Ronald.
If Acuna had so many issues with his teammate, then why didn’t they sit down and talk? A baseball season is 162 games long spanning more than six months; baseball has the longest road trips in all of professional sports. With these long road trips come tons of idle time. Free time is available at every turn as the players travel to and from games, rest in hotels and restaurants, and prep in the dugout between batting and fielding practices. Acuna and Freeman are supposed to be grown ups. There was plenty of time for these two to iron out their issues. Instead, Acuna aired his dirty laundry in an Instagram Live interview. So now Acuna is happy that Freeman is gone, the same Freeman that played with Acuna to the tune of a World Series championship. Can a Ronald Acuna Jr. team win another World Series without Freddie Freeman? My magic 8 ball reads ’Outlook not so good’.
These are bleak examples of detestable role models in the pros. Search hard enough though, and you will find rays of hope for sportsmanship and doing the right thing in high level athletics. First, look to a perennially successful NCAA Division II baseball program in South Carolina. The Francis Marion University Patriots are led by longtime coach Art Inabinet; his squad has a dynamic third baseman named Todd Mattox. Mattox’s story is unique in that this season, he was just 9 games shy of the NCAA Division II record for most consecutive games reaching base. He was at 79 games consecutively reaching base before facing off against in state non-conference rival Lander University in mid April.
With Mattox already 0-4 in the game without a walk or hit by pitch against Lander to his credit, the FMU Patriots team headed to extra innings providing Mattox with another chance to extend his streak. With a runner aboard in the tenth inning, Inabinet made the right baseball call and Mattox followed it with a sacrifice bunt. Inabinet or Mattox could have selfishly opted for Mattox to swing away, but the correct play was for the sacrifice attempt. This call improved the Patriots chances for victory but would restrict Mattox from another chance to extend his streak. Mattox successfully laid down the bunt with a sacrificing out to advance the runner. Ultimately that runner scored, extending the game.
The Patriots would go on to win the game in the 12th inning. Coach and player were on the same page – play a team game, and do all you can to help your team to victory. Inabinet and Mattox are high class personified. I know Coach Inabinet personally and know that this just one of many examples of his selfless coaching and teaching of his team. I don’t know Todd Mattox, but my guess is that he’s cut from the same cloth.
The Los Angeles Dodgers made a similar ’for the team’ decision earlier this season. Clayton Kershaw has been the team’s ace for years, and he picked up the ball for his first start of the season last week. Kershaw proceeded to throw a perfect game through seven innings tossing 80 pitches in the process. Kershaw was plagued with injury in 2021 so preserving Kershaw for a solid season is paramount to Coach Dave Roberts’ responsibilities as the skipper for the team. Roberts pulled Kershaw at the end of the seventh, to the dismay to selfish fans and players nationwide.
Roberts has to play for the game win, but also has to play for the season overall – pulling Kershaw is the right baseball move. Pundits complain that Roberts robbed Kershaw, and the nation of the possibility of a great feel good story, the first perfect game since Felix Hernandez tossed one for the Mariners in 2012. Postgame, Roberts made his case to the media. Then the media pressed and coerced Kershaw with the hopes that he would complain about his coach. Kershaw foiled the starved interviewers by backing Roberts’ statements that this was the proper coaching move saving Kershaw’s shoulder for a long season. Kershaw and Roberts are in lockstep in their pursuit of another World Series title; their approach is leadership by example – the Dodgers clearly are aiming for team success above personal acclaim.
In a sports landscape that is becoming more drama than substance, we have to search harder to find role models we can look up to in athletics. Selfishness and individual negativity always seem to grab the headline ahead of a story about selfless play and day to day sportsmanship. In the 1990s we were told to ’Be like Mike’. In the 2020’s there’s no need to be like Russ, Baker, or Ronald. Be like Art and Todd, be like Dave and Clay.
Paul MacDonald - Sports Broadcaster 