AS I SEE IT COLUMN: NBA coach reminds us how to win and lose with class

The idea of how of all of us are supposed to behave when we win or lose a competition is something that has been taught since we were young children.

Our parents, our teachers, our coaches, our Sunday School teachers, all of them tried to ingrain in us that there is a proper way to carry yourself when you are the victor and a proper way to behave when you are the vanquished.

Greg Popovich, head coach of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, put it perfectly in a pre-game speech to the assembled media a couple of weeks ago.

“Like everybody in this room, you know, hopefully all of us taught our children, ‘You’re not gonna win all the time but when you win, be humble. When you lose, do it with grace.’”

While this seems like common sense and basic human decency, the events of the past few years have taught us that losing with grace and class is a lesson not everyone has learned.

We are taught to show class whether we win or lose. You accept the results, whether you win or lose. We are also taught that we show our true character when we win, as well as when we lose.

You can’t only believe in the outcome of a contest when you win. That’s childish, stupid, and wildly hypocritical. And it’s not how the real world works. We all lose sometimes. There is no shame in losing.

There is, however, massive shame if you cannot accept defeat, if you are the loser and you refuse to accept reality.

Think of all the sports that are judged, like figure skating, diving, gymnastics, boxing, taekwondo, and Grecko-Roman wrestling.

Now think of the utter chaos that would happen if people in those sports — where winning and losing is determined by other people’s votes – would say they only accept the results if they win. That if they lose, the results and the votes must be rigged and not valid. That the whole competition was fraudulent if they lose but perfectly legal if they win.

It’s not just a Big Lie. It’s a deeply immoral lie and one that is potentially dangerous in our divided society.

Denying reality is not how the real world operates. We literally win some and we literally lose some. How we behave when things go well and we win, or when they don’t go well and we lose, says a lot about a person’s character.

Coach Popovich made another valid point. He looked to the media in the press room and rightly said the other reason it is important to accept the results of a competition is to be a good example for our children and grandchildren.

Again, that is common sense to most sane, rational people but we tragically live on a continent where reality and truth and facts don’t seem to matter to tens of millions of people.

Imagine a world where someone says “If I win, the results are valid, but if I lose, the results are rigged.” Or they say “I’ll believe the results only if we win but not if we lose.”

That is pure madness.

Thank you, coach Popovich, for reminding us of the importance of winning with class – and given the upside-down world we live in where there are deranged people who accept results only when they win – of losing with class, dignity and respect.