On Being the Runner Up Michele Laughing Reeves

On Being the RunnerUp

By Michele Laughing-Reeves

There’s nothing like the excitement of a championship, it doesn’t matter if it’s the little league or the big league. Everyone remembers the winners, but there are always runners-up who are noteworthy for being the great competition, and not necessarily for losing. Currently, sports, like everything else, took a hiatus while everyone did their part to flatten the curve. During this time athletes trained at home and alone, while fans watched reruns and Michael Jordan’s “The Last Dance.” Four months into our CDC-guided new lifestyle, professional athletes are returning to their teams and to the playing fields, and for the Las Vegas Raiders that means moving into a brand- spanking-new stadium off I-15. It is a matter of time, societal behavior, and government leadership before sports fans can return to the stadiums; meanwhile, let’s recall some notable, or perhaps obscure, runners-up to famous champions.

One of the most famous and memorable NBA games is not a championship game but a playoff game. Being a runner-up to the Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era should not be discouraging; seriously, the guy could fly. Many fans would agree that the most notable runnerup during the 1988-89 Eastern Conference playoffs was the Cleveland Cavaliers. Fans know that game simply as “The Shot.” With 3 seconds on the clock, behind by one point, and an arena filled with Cav’s fans chanting “defense, defense…,” Jordan gets the inbound pass, takes one dribble to the free throw line, and the rest is history. No one puts a home-court crowd into stunned silence like MJ. This game ended the first-round conference series, 3-2, for the Bulls, and they would eventually lose to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference championship. But the game against the Pistons will forever be overshadowed by the Bulls’ lastsecond victory over the Cavaliers. By the end of the season, no one seems to remember that the Bulls did not win the Championship, only that the Cavaliers took them to game five—the one that ended with “the shot.” Thirty years later, we still watch that play inawe.

Twenty years ago, Tiger Woods was 25 years old, ranked number one, and winning PGA tournaments like there’s no tomorrow. However, to everyone’s surprise, perhaps even Tiger himself, Bob May would prove to be his biggest challenge. May, ranked 48th, entered the final round on Sunday paired with Tiger, and with him he brought his A-game. Him? Who May or Woods?Both.

For the next 18 holes they went “birdie-forbirdie, par-for-par, bogey-for-bogey” (golfing lingo). May had a one-shot lead up to the 17th hole. Bob May wasn’t going away, and neither was the crowd, who cheered like it was match up between Alabama and Auburn. Tiger then joined May on the leader board as they approached the 18th hole and the roar of the crowd. Just off the green, May made the putt for birdie, leaving all the pressure on Tiger. If Tiger makes the putt, then there will be a 3-hole playoff; if he misses, he loses. Of course, he also birdied, and the championship round continued back at the 16th . It was on the 16th hole where Tiger famously points the ball into the hole for a birdie—and the lead. The last two holes were sloppy, but still

evenly matched. Tiger wins his 5th major of the year, to tie with Ben Hogan and join him in the history books. As the sunset on that August day in Louisville, Kentucky, who would’ve guessed that the 48th ranked player would be runnerup to Tiger Woods. May also earned respect from golfers and fans and will be forever linked to Tiger Woods as one of the best duels in sportshistory.

Then, there are those opponents who are remembered for their mistakes. Opponents love to trash-talk before a competition in hopes that the intimidation will fluster their opponent. Or it could easily backfire and motivate the opponent instead. The worst kind of trash-talk is the one done by the overwhelming favorites and to be uttered on a global stage, like the Olympics. During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, in which Michael Phelps would win 8 gold medals, the 4 X 100 freestyle swimming team from France, in particular the anchor Alain Bernard, made the mistake of responding to an interview question with, “The Americans? We will smash them. That’s what we came here for.” In a sport in which timing is everything, the French team should’ve waited until the gold medals were securely around their necks before “smashing” anyone, especially the American team that included Phelps. The hero in this race was the American anchor swimmer Jason Lezak, who leapt into the pool only milliseconds after Bernard. As the NBC commentators told the worldwide audience that the US would have to settle for a silver medal, Lezak was swimming the fastest 100 meters in relay history. Phelps’ cheer, including some bleeped-out words, revealed how much he, and the rest of the US, wanted to prove Bernard wrong. Lezak touched the wall 0.08 seconds ahead of Bernard, and Americans in the stands and in their living rooms went crazy. Two lessons from this event: one— time is precious, don’t take it for granted, and two—never trash talk Americanswimmers.

There are some runners-up who surprised us with their sportsmanship, and there are others, like German Olympian Luz Long, who surprised the world with their humanity. Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany: the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the 4 X 100 meters relay, and the long jump. Long and Owens competed in the long jump in front of a capacity crowd and the first ever televised audience. In attendance was Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany and promoter of the ideology of the Aryan Race as the master race.

Owens out leapt all jumpers for the gold medal, and Luz Long won the silver medal. When Long came off the medals podium, he proceeded to join Jesse Owens in a victory lap around the stadium, arm in arm. You can only imagine what Hitler might’ve thought. Long and Owens became quick friends during the games. Long even helped Owens adjust his takeoff point to avoid disqualification. Their promise of enduring friendship and future competition ended when Long was killed during World War II. During one of the most controversial times in world history, two athletes forged a friendship that defied the unjust ideology of the host country.

The great Pelé said, “The more difficult the victory, the greater happiness in winning.” Pelé, aka Sir Pelé (he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1997) is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, soccer players of all time. He won three World Cup championships for Brazil, and even has a day named for him in his beloved country. This would mean that there are plenty of soccer players who were his runners-up, and to lose to someone of that caliber, like Jordan, Tiger, Phelps, and Owens, is honorable, no matter how bad it feels to lose. Sports fans and ESPN are re- watching all sorts of championship games and events to pass the time “together” and patiently wait to walk through turnstiles, find their seats, and witness more great moments. In the meantime, fans should relive some of sports greatest moments, it wouldn’t be a great moment if it weren’t for the runners-up, who came to challenge the best.