If Winners Rule By Winning, Everyone Else Is A Loser?

The safe answer for winners is, “Maybe.”

Don’t we all consider ourselves winners at some point?

We might say we don’t keep score, but we know the score. Like rec soccer for toddlers, they knew the score of their games even if the parents pretended not to.

So why not just say, “screw it,” and slide into every day like the loser you’re convinced you are? Because that’s not what winners do.

Sports help clear things up.

The Portland Trail Blazers face elimination tonight in Denver. It’s the second round of the NBA playoffs, but you knew that, with the Nuggets up three games to two.

Need a win here, but win or lose, elimination games define who is a real winner, and who’s a pretender.

For example, Boston packed it in last night. Even with their superstar back they were nearly swept. They got further last year without the greatness of Kyrie Irving.

This is where sports teaches the biggest lesson. A loss in the NBA playoffs means you’re a big old loser? Explain that to anyone shooting hoops anywhere but the playoffs. They all want to be as big a loser as someone who went out in the second round.

What’s the difference between a winner and a rub it in winner? About the same difference between a loser and a quitter. Boston lost, but worse, it looked they had a quitter problem.

Please basketball gods, don’t let the quitter bug bite Portland. Win or lose, just don’t quit. That’s not asking too much.

Think of the song ‘Simple Man.’

Don’t you worry, you’ll find yourself. Follow your heart, and nothing else. You can do this, Blazers, if you try. All that I want for this team, is to be satisfied.

Just don’t quit, leave the court early, sit away from teammates, whine so much you take a two tech disqualification, argue with Stotts, and flop. Try not to flop, or get caught by a flop.

II

Now back to you.

Since we can’t keep score day to day in any meaningful way, take time to help someone.

I could have walked past an old man loading Home Depot lumber into his Camry trunk with the backseats down. You’ve seen this move? Done it? Me too, and it scuffs the heck out of interior trim.

So I offered to help, and like the crusty old geezer that he was, he said no thanks. I helped him anyway.

Later the same day I told this story over a beer in Tapphoria, my guitar destination Saturday night. I probably said how important it is to butt in uninvited.

The next day I was loading huge bales of dirt into the back of my Highlander and saw the man from Tapphoria with his mom loading stuff into their car.

I offered to help with, “Can I give you a hand?”

The G-man said, “No thanks. Does this mean I’m the old man today?”

The G knows more about winning and losing than most, and I would have been the winner if I had convinced him to load my car, too.

But like the ornery old fart in the Home Depot parking lot where we both won, I got to be the old geezer declining help.

Besides, G was already doing what winners do.