The Wisdom of Steve Kerr

The priest at my Church cautioned on Sunday that too many of us are allowing sports to be our religion. As a basketball fan (deserving that label, which denotes a certain level of fanaticism), I’m certainly guilty of this. And while I think there is still a moral imperative to drive corruption out of sports and support measures that increase transparency and the legitimacy of outcomes, ultimately there are things far, far more important than the sports we love. Steve Kerr puts it well in this article, which really drives the point home:

“The allure of the championship is so strong that seizing hold of one becomes a blinding obsession, a longing so powerful it aches. Before you get there, you think it is all you have ever wanted.
Until you realize that couldn't be further from the truth….
This is where they reside, this tandem of Kerr and Myers, mired in a timeline distinctly delineated by Before and After.
For Kerr, Before is any time previous to the morning he underwent routine back surgery last July and suffered excruciating complications that still leave him crippled by pain nearly every day.
For Myers, Before is the days preceding Sept. 12, 2015, the moment he learned his 33-year-old brother-in-law, Scott Dinsmore, who was on a trek up Mount Kilimanjaro, was crushed to death by a cascade of falling boulders, with his wife, Chelsea, just an outstretched hand away.
They have both soldiered on through physical and emotional pain that exacts its daily toll like a conductor punching tickets on the morning train. Their misery became a shared burden; a connection both would desperately prefer to do without.
Back when his team was leading 3-1 in the Finals, Kerr rubbed his weary eyes during a practice and tried to put it in perspective.
"For a lack of a better way of putting it,'' Kerr said, gesturing toward the court, "this is all bulls---. It's so much fun, and it's rewarding to be part of a team, and to have a quest and to try and win a championship. It's great thinking we've established this legacy and hung a banner, and all of that is very important in terms of bringing joy to the fans' lives -- that's where the true importance of what we do lies -- but in the grand scheme of things, it's still bulls---. I've found that out.''
Kerr, of course, knows some will misconstrue his sentiments that a championship simply shouldn't hold so much importance.
"But it's true,'' Kerr said.
"You want to win because you are so competitive,'' Kerr said Saturday. "So you try like crazy to do everything you can to make it happen. And then, in the end, you either win or lose. Obviously, if you win, it's amazing, incredible. But if you don't, you move on.”