Sports are a mirror reflection of life. A number of recent stories, one about Lamar Odom a two time world basketball champion with the Los Angeles Lakers and the other about match fixing by the Nepali football team, provide examples. Odom, 35, was recently found unconscious in a Las Vegas brothel, due to an overdose. Three current and two former members of the Nepal national football team have been taken into custody for match fixing.
Odom grew up in a difficult household, but became a star, married into a reality TV show family, had a child die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) but never quite recovered from being traded from the Lakers. Since 2008, the members of the football team were taking $5,000 to fix international matches. Odom went from poverty to stardom, drug addiction to being found unconscious in a brothel to being on life support in a hospital. The football team members have gone from national heroes to potential convicts facing time in jail on treason charges.
Although many dream about being stars we aren’t immune from life’s problems. Having money, without the connections, can’t keep you out of jail. Without proper direction money can lead to drugs and spending time in a brothel, to “escape” from one’s problems. Being on a national team puts one in the spotlight, after all you are playing for your country. But taking money for fixing matches disgraces you, your family and your nation. You become number one on the most hated list.
Many people share Odom’s propensity towards a self-destructive personality, also lacking self-confidence except when he was on a basketball court. The Nepali national team members probably didn’t get paid a lot, felt that they were above the law and were willing to risk their lives for a little bit of money. Neither of these examples are that far removed from decisions that we face on a daily basis.
The FIFA corruption problems provides another example of how sports mirror the worst in life. But how could it be any different as life is full of deceit.
Current world events clearly show this to be the case. The tens of millions of refugees who we choose to ignore, on-going wars with proxies such as the US and Russia ramping killings up in Syria, lies and partial stories told to us by governments and individuals, emotional distress.
But life is balanced and there are also the positive sides to sports. The recent baseball playoffs are an example of this offering a sense of excitement and fun. A new season is about to start in the National Basketball Association bringing hope to fans, no matter how well or poorly one’s team did last season.
Excelling in sports as in life isn’t easy. One has to have the perseverance and fortitude to perform under stressful conditions and often times play through pain. This is the same in dealing with life. It’s easier to muddle through and give up but following through is the key to finding out what we are made of, making a difference in ours and others lives.
I’m saddened by the two stories that I started this article with. I think about what it would have been like to be an athlete at the top of my game. But I, as we all do, have the ability to make a difference, to make good decisions whether or not we think that someone is looking. Every day I can decide how to spend my money or what I would do when faced with someone offering me a bribe whether it is monetary or otherwise. We all have the power no matter where we’ve come from to face life’s problems. Lamar Odom, the Nepali football team members and FIFA’s upper echelons all had a choice. In these cases they seems to have chosen the wrong path.
Choose the right path; it might be longer but in the end it will make the difference.
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