So a funny thing happened in the WNBA All-Star Game Saturday. Towards the end of the game, Sylvia Fowles of the Chicago Sky charged down the lane for a dunk, coming up just short. But then, her team got her the ball back, the defense cleared the way, and she took another crack at dunking. This time, she was successful. Congrats? Not so fast.
To our minds, this little episode is just further proof of the superiority of running to all other sports. Think about it. In this “game,” the participants decided to stop playing hard just so one of the players could do some cool trick. And this doesn’t just happen in women’s basketball. Every all-star game in every sport, there’s an unspoken agreement that no one is actually going to try hard. In fact, it’s seen as unsportsman(or woman)like to actually care about winning–Pete Rose is still blamed for ending Ray Fosse’s career when he bowled him over at home plate in the 1970 baseball all-star game. Instead, they laugh and tell jokes and “forget” to play defense and generally just goof around. They say they’re just happy to be there, and just want to give fans a good show. After all, they’re all just there to have fun.
Thank Pheidippides Pre isn’t alive today to hear that. Can you imagine the same thing happening in running? Like, Brian Sell and Gebrselassie and Paule Radcliffe and whoever all met up in like Tokyo, and then halfheartedly ran a marathon? “Oh, we weren’t trying hard, we were just having fun. We didn’t really care who won.” What racing fan would want to watch that? What’s the point? Why would these top-flight atheletes who spend their lives do nothing but preparing to win suddenly want to half-ass it? Are they going to do trick-running to show-off–like run the marathon backwards, or while skipping, or while whistling showtunes?!?
Though, actually, that could be kinda cool.
Point being, congrats to Ms. Fowles. One of the last barriers between men and women is the ability to dunk, and she’s doing her part to shatter that glass backboard. But, when you think about it, isn’t one of the cool things about running that there is nothing but running? No taking it easy, no lollygagging, no showboating–just running. And if runners run, then they can be confident they are giving the fans what they want.
