GOLD WATCH OR GOLD MEDAL

This gold watch was once the most desired piece of jewelry on any wrist.

If you didn’t wear a Seiko watch, who were you?

This one came from San Antonio, Texas after the owner whipped the strongest man he’d ever met in arm wrestling.

After that it was a gold medal.

After a decade’s run on one wrist the owner sold it to a kid they knew who had admired it for years.

Then things got dicey.

The kid with the watch fancied himself a skilled basketball player; so did the former owner.

They agreed on a game. The winner got the watch.

To make it more interesting the kid brought along a friend.

The game turned from one on one to their version of Cut Throat, or two on one where the guy with the ball faced two defenders.

These were grown men competing for the gold and they crushed each other.

No one could shoot outside but they could spin down the middle.

Some spun better than others.

The former owner channeled his inner Magic Johnson, bounced off the others, and scored again and again.

Gold Watch To The Winner

The two friends didn’t anticipate the ferocity of the game the former watch owner brought to the court.

Like most baby boomers he’d seen the Olympic gold medal game in the ’72 Munich basketball tournament.

The top picture shows the medal ceremony for the 1972 Olympic basketball tournament. The second place silver medal spot is empty. Until the Munich Olympics, America had won every basketball gold medal.

In the end, the American team had been cheated on the court and refused to accept the tarnished silver. The USSR showed up for their tarnished gold.

When you’re used to winning, making a winning effort, and know you won, losing is hard.

It’s especially hard for low-character, low effort people, those who lie and cheat their way through life and call it winning. Even harder when they teach their kids to lie and cheat and call it winning.

The fire burns differently for each player. If there’s no fire, there’s no player.

One of the three was on fire, channeling every defeat, setback, every slight, passing over, and ignored moment into the game.

He felt a need to show what’s what and who’s who.

At the end of the ‘game’ he took the watch home and wore it another five years.

The last four years the gold watch was broken but he wore it for the memories.

Gold Medal Life Lesson

How often does the bigger person have a chance too show up?

The runner who stops in the middle of a race to help another?

The baseball players who help a hurt opponent around the bases with the winning run?

The cheating gold medal players of ’72 refusing the gold watch, gold medal, whatever they got.

I heard this story recently:

An ambitious naval officer scheduled himself and his team for a dangerous rescue mission.

But before they got there, another team had done the job.

Instead of giving credit to the others, the navy officer falsified his after action report and put himself and his team up for commendations, for medals, always a career boost.

When he stood in front of the awards formation to receive his medal he called his team up to join join him.

And they didn’t move.

Showing your dominance over others in sports comes with a responsibility called sportsmanship.

If you train for an event and find the event has changed to favor the competition, do you crush them with good sportsmanship?

Your marathon training partner pulls over to puke at five miles into the biggest race of your life?

What do you do?

Sports and life have so many connections, and you’re the bigger person for helping your competition and keeping things friendly.

What do they call friendly people on the court, the field, the pitch, the mat, the diamond?

They are winners in life. They may lose their games, but still be winners in the bigger picture.

Call them role models of good behavior.

Be more like them.

(I’ve still got the gold watch, rested and ready.)