Fans love when their teams are champions. But fan support alone won’t take a mediocre team to championship level. Heart is what a team needs. The heart is what will bring glory even to average teams.
John Elway had a heart. There was never any doubt about that, as he gave his best to get to the Super Bowl five times. No one in the 80s said the Broncos had a great all-around team, but they had a good team plus a leader with Heart.
On the other hand, the Dallas Mavericks won 67 games in 2007, an incredible 80 percent winning percentage. It was the sixth fastest time in the NBA. But what did they do with it? They lost easily in the first round of the playoffs to the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors. The first time a seeded player has lost in the NBA to the worst finish since the first round was seven games away.
Remember when they expanded the first round from 5 to 7 games? One reason was to help ensure that the favorite team won the series even if they had a bad night.
Dallas, however, was never competitive. This didn’t even go to 7 games. It was barely 6 games just because of a miraculous comeback in the last minutes of the fifth game.
It was clear that Golden State had a heart and they worked hard.
Champions rise to the occasion. That’s what they play for. It’s not the regular season where cheap wins are easy for humble teams. It is not the regular season where a game is just a game and the emotional game is sometimes lacking.
No, players with hearts play their best in the 4th quarter. They take shots in the playoffs. They are leaders who improve the players around them because they play hard and set a high bar and a great example.
Michael Jordan. Larry Bird. Magic Johnson. All great basketball players, but their greatness and lasting legacy weren’t the result of regular-season wins. Memories of their game come from the playoffs, when they assumed the mantle of greatness and showed what it means to play hard and well. Even when they weren’t winning, they had nothing to be ashamed of. They didn’t wither and lost game after game by dozens of points. They came to play and they wanted the ball.
Teams like the 2007 Dallas Mavericks may have good players, but they are flashes and are soon forgotten no matter how many wins they have in the regular season. Does anyone remember the 2001 Seattle Mariners who won a record 116 games? No. Because they couldn’t finish and soon returned to mediocrity.
Dallas needs a player with a heart. Not just an average desire, but a talent with a burning desire to win at all costs that transcends regular season play. Until that happens there will be no championship.
Other teams take note. Heart can be more important than flashy stats in bringing a team to a championship level. What finally brought glory to the perennial Philadelphia Phillies doormat? An aged Pete Rose. Not because he was hitting 60 home runs, but because he had the heart of a champion, and that intangible factor forced his teammates to get the best of themselves.
So all of you fans, find your favorite team and make sure to support the ones with hearts. Keeping those players is what will ultimately bring you a championship.