Sport and Bonding
Guest Writer: Ken Fellows
In their day, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were celebrated hall-of-fame stars for different, highly competitive professional basketball teams, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. While giving no quarter during a multitude of games, they famously bonded off-court to form a legendary friendship full of mutual admiration. In all sports, there are similar close relationships between fierce competitors, but perhaps none more recognized than the Bird/Johnson comradeship.
The byline for this recent picture in the Boston Globe was: ”Real Reward: Results Matter in Sports, but Relationships Matter More and Last Longer.” In the piece, sports writer Tara Sullivan described the “power of friendship in sports and how bearing witness to the respect, trust, and loyalty between professional athletes can be as captivating as watching them compete for wins and championships. The example they set in those moments resonates with more potency than anything achieved statistically.”
In her article, Sullivan points out that “Jesse Owens, who forever changed our conversation on racial equality, said this: Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, and friends gather no dust.”
This statement, the wording quite eloquent, is nonetheless insightful and has been illustrated many times in other athletic avenues. Sullivan’s article also cites Chris Evert and Martine Navratilova, former competing tennis champions turned best friends, who helped each other through their battles with cancer. And, at the end of Roger Federer’s retirement tennis match with Rafael Nadal, the pair celebrated their respect and loyalty while tearfully raising held hands.
My youth and my adult years were enlivened and enriched by playing individual and team sports. Especially memorable in my senior years are the many teammates, competitors and games I accumulated over 25 retirement years playing adult basketball and pond hockey in Kittery Pt, Maine.
Our basketball games occurred in a local school gym on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6-8 pm. As memorable as the games were, the comradery … the kidding, joking, stories, and laughs … during between-game rest periods produced particularly lasting friendships and durable memories.
The night I ‘retired,’ I told the assembled 8-10 players that it was my last game …with regrets that all I ever wanted to hear upon leaving this earth when the time comes was “nice shot.” One of my best friends immediately countered: “That would never happen. The last words you would ever hear are: “That’s another foul.” He, I, and several other longtime player-friends still meet several times annually to reminisce over ‘beers and burgers.’ And there’s always a ‘reunion picnic’ held each spring.
I’ve also maintained friendships with many of my ice hockey compatriots.
Having retired from playing hockey several years ago, I now stop and wistfully wave at the guys when driving past the Fort McClary pond where we played. But not anymore. Climate change has terminated skating there and at most local ponds. Many of those hockey players, like my basketball buddies, are still chums and peers …. for which I’m grateful.
It’s refreshing to be reminded that trophies and medals are valued mementos of achievement, but tarnish, fade and break. Like Larry and Magic, the best rewards in sports are the friendships established … they can last forever.
Ken Fellows
Joanna Seibert joannaseibert.com