My cousin is a huge LA Lakers fan. Last night a great deal of teasing took place in our Cousins Facebook group (yes, my family is that rad) over the fact that his sister sat in great seats for the Lakers vs. Suns game last night (and he didn’t go). Today, we joked about it even more after we learned that the last time the Lakers played a 3 OT game was back in 1969 (which the Lakers lost to the San Francisco Warriors).
Many are calling last night’s game one of the best NBA games in quite sometime, but I’m going to disagree. Walk with me for a moment here.
In the 3rd quarter, the Lakers led 89-68.
That’s 21 points.
SEVEN 3-point baskets.
Even with a several fouls resulting in 4-pointers, you’re still talking at least six possessions to get the lead.
And the Lakers blew this lead.
Now if Phoenix had ultimately caught up to win this game, I might view this a little bit differently (not because I live in Phoenix. Full disclosure: I’m really not a basketball guy overall and only watch my alma mater and March Madness).
I say all this not to get my cousin to hate me, but rather because I don’t think a single overtime should be necessary when the lead is that large. If the lead had changed multiple times and the game was closer throughout it, it’d be a different story.
But the Lakers blew a 21 point lead.
They didn’t do the job right the first time and so it took them three overtimes to finish it.
***
When I got home from the gym today, I turned on the TV and watched part of a program on The History Channel while I ate lunch. The Crumbling of America focused on our aging infrastructure and our need to fix it in the upcoming decades. I caught a segment on the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York. Built during the Korean War when supplies were limited, the bridge used untreated wood rather than steel. Unfortunately, this decision combined with the increased traffic on the bridge, has made many worry about its structural integrity.
The job wasn’t done quite right the first time and now it’s going to cost well over 6 billion dollars to replace it.
It’s true that even if steel had been used, there would come a point in time where the bridge would need to be replaced, but it wouldn’t be this soon.
My point?
It’s time we put in that good effort the first time we do a task rather than worry about fixing our mistakes down the road. We’ve become addicted to shortcuts these days. We rely on CliffsNotes, SparkNotes, and Wikipedia rather than developing that knowledge that will help us long-term. We build up a nice grade in a class just so that we can slack on future assignments. We get comfortable with our status quo and then we’re surprised when “the Suns” coming knocking at our door and it takes twice as much time and effort to be successful or we mourn when our hard work deteriorates far too quickly.
Yes, these days are exhausting, but I imagine you could talk to any Lakers player last night and he would have said he would have much rather played the regular 48 minutes rather than the 63 played last night.
Wouldn’t you rather put in the effort now and do things right than trying to make up for it down the road?