Blog Post #3

Blog Post – 3

Nat Outmezguine

cl. 804

November 7, 2015

Game Changers by Mike Lupica

The best sports stories often emerge from great rivalries. For fans of competing rivals, rivalries help to connect fans to the past while creating an emotional connection to an otherwise regular game. For fans, rivalries can infuse intense thrills when teams win, and complete devastation when teams lose.

The greatest NBA basketball rivalry is between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers who have met in the NBA Finals 12 times, with many of the games becoming classics. No two teams have met more often to decide a championship in any professional sport in the world. The rivalry did not start off as much of a rivalry as the Celtics won the first eight times the two teams played for the championship. However, when the Lakers were finally able to turn the tide and win their first championship, the rivalry was born. Since that first championship won by the Lakers, they have won three out of the last four championship games against the Celtics.

In the book Game Changers by Mike Lupica, two competitive students, Ben and Chase are basketball rivals. In life, as in the book, rivalries can sometimes last a long time and make games more interesting and emotional; however sometimes rivalries can also take the fun out of the game.

In this book, Ben and Chase, are the two best point guards in the basketball league they both play in. Both are competitive and strive to be the best in the league. Ben trains every day to make himself better, even going as far as cutting off all his friendships so he can spend more time practicing his basketball skills.

In the first game they played against one another, Ben and Chase are both playing well, however Chase is talking trash to Ben after each basket he scores, trying to intimidate Ben. Ben tries his best to ignore the taunts, however, at a certain point he gets frustrated after a foul, and he pushes Chase. Chase gets upset and they begin shoving each other and fighting. After the two boys are separated, Ben is unable to concentrate and he does not play well for the rest of the game. As a result, His team loses the game. Ben was blamed by his friends and teammates for starting the fight, and losing the game. This is an example where the fun can be taken out of the game when players or teams take the game too seriously.

During the championship game at the end of the season, both teams traded buckets back and forth throughout the entire game. The game came down to the final seconds and Ben was able to hit the game winning shot. You can only imagine the emotion of the players and supporters, and how heartbroken Chase and his team were. At the end of the championship game, after Ben’s team won the championship, he walked over to Chase and apologized for starting the fight in the first game they played against each other. Chase forgave him and said “I'll see you when baseball season starts," thus continuing their rivalry against one another.

Sports should always be about having fun. It is not only about losing or winning but about learning. Now, sometimes competition is good and can make you play better and the feeling after winning can be sweet and good. However, there is no doubt that losing hurts. We should never forget that a game at the end of the day is just a game, and there are more important and serious things in life. Even in the name of great rivalries we should not forget this simple truth.