On Losing

I was watching the beginning of the broadcast of this evening's Pacers-Knicks game, and as the Knicks were shown skip-running out of the locker room and through the tunnel, a string of words from one of the commentators caught my ear:

...the Indiana Pacers, who've been doing a lot of losing lately...

I didn't catch what came before that, and I no longer paid attention to what came after, but those words struck me as funny. I heard them and immediately felt like something was not right about them. A few seconds of my head titled to one side and a slight frown furrowing my brow, and it came to me: Is losing something you do?

To me, doing implies intent and activity. Doing means taking action with a purpose. I don't think people, particularly NBA teams, set a goal of losing and then take action to arrive at that goal. Losing is not something you do. Rather, it is the result of one's intent and activity being insufficient to produce a win or, worse, the result of a lack of intent and activity.

I suppose that doing is related to losing in the sense that when a team loses, they should consider it their responsibility, i.e., of their own doing. They shouldn't blame it on the schedule, the referees, the weather. They shouldn't make excuses for themselves. It is something they ought to place on themselves, not on anyone or anything else.

But what is it that they place on themselves? Certainly not intent and action. Rather, it is the lack or insufficiency thereof. Losing happens because of a lack of intent and action--fewer points, fewer rebounds, fewer blocks, a lower shooting percentage, more turnovers (which is less something you do than something that happens when you don't do what you are supposed to, i.e., take care of the ball).

Just a thought.