ALBIN’S ANGLE

6elfi sK Slay Growing trend of players picking themselves over others in team sports

Nate Albin albinnat000@hsestudents.org C oaches and parents telling their kids “There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’” is a staple of growing up playing youth sports. The saying is now beyond cliché and is included in just about every motivational sports speech. Despite all this, it seems as though team sports may now be less about the team with each passing day. The problem is clear; athletes think the team matters less than the individual. But honestly, everyone has some of the blame to share. On April 16, 2016, the Indiana Pacers’ Paul George ranted. Following a 102-99 defeat to the <oronto :aptors in /ame  of the fi rst round of the 6*) 8layoff s, /eorge _ent off , saying things like the Pacers were “his team.” The missed 3-point attempt to tie up the ball game “should have been his,” according to George. He was wrong in saying this. George was wrong to think this. Yes, Paul George was by far the best player on the 2015-16 Indiana Pacers. Many considered him an MVP candidate. He started for the Eastern Conference in the NBA All-Star Game that year. Still, none of this excuses his behavior. In recent weeks, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has been saying he will not show up to practice unless he gets a contract that would make him close to, if not the, highest paid quarterback in NFL history. This would indicate that he has played as one of the best players in the league when the reality is he has been wildly inconsistent. This also comes at a time when the team has other players whose contracts are also expiring. Thinking that one player means more than everyone else is silly. If a traditional six-foot point guard tried to play center and guard a seven-foot behemoth, it would likely end poorly. The same could be said if that center tried to guard that point guard. Every position has a role and a job. This may all seem pointless, but it is not. Athletes all too often forget the big picture. In team sports, only the team can win. If a single player plays the greatest game of all-time, but the team loses, the performance does not really matter. Sure, it may have been incredible, but the team lost. On a team, a player is supposed to do their job. Their job is not to do the work of everyone to lead the team to a win. The best teams have players who all do their job, not one player “carrying” the entire team. Coaches have allowed this issue to manifest. Often at the end of games, the ball is given to one player to make something - anything - happen. And this is not players just ball-hogging at the end of a game. Coaches draw up plays for stars to try some lousy, predictable play. If the play miraculously works, the ego of the star athlete skyrockets. 7_ners have fueled this fi re. There is not any player truly worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Bryce Harper, outfi elder for the 8hiladelphia Phillies, signed a 13 year/$330 million contract this past year. This weighs very heavily on what the Phillies can do in the future. Because they pay one athlete so much, they cannot aff ord to sign other players to help _in. Comparatively, this player will look much better and have superior stats than everyone else because they are on a team that is not good. Thus, people will praise the athlete for “putting the team on their back” when the team wins. And there lies perhaps the biggest problem. The fans do not help at all. We praise athletes like gods. We wear their jerseys. We complain about our team not winning, but we fail to notice that having players with supersized contracts hurts our teams in the long run. Fans go beg for autographs, a high fi ve, anything _ithout thinSing about the possible consequence; players thinking they mean more than the teammate that does not have his or her jersey everywhere or does not have a massive line for autographs. There is no “I” in ‘team’. But, there is a ‘team’ in ‘team’.

The Pacers traded Paul George in the summer of 2017. This occurred after he and the franchise clashed over his monetary value to the team. Photo used with permission from fl ickr.