{"id":3306,"date":"2014-06-05T06:38:17","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T10:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3306"},"modified":"2014-06-05T06:50:45","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T10:50:45","slug":"team-vs-individual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3306","title":{"rendered":"team vs. individual"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"basketball-bench\"<\/a>A fascinating event begins this evening, and while the event actually takes place on basketball\u2019s hardwood, I promise that this post is not about sports.\u00a0 As in the recent stories of Donald Sterling and Michael Sam, sports often serves as a societal microcosm.\u00a0 So many pay attention, and the lessons and learning often surpass the arena or the game.<\/p>\n

Tonight begins \u201cThe Finals,\u201d the annual championship series between the best of the NBA.\u00a0 The winner of the best of 7 series will receive the coveted Walter A. Brown Trophy and be crowned the year\u2019s victor.\u00a0 It is the event that made Bird and Boston and Magic and Michael household names.\u00a0 Tonight, however, is unique for a far different reason.<\/p>\n

The 2014 Finals features the Miami Heat vs. the San Antonio Spurs.\u00a0 The Spurs are considered the nation\u2019s best team.\u00a0 As written in USA Today\u2019s analysis:\u00a0 \u201cThe Spurs have been the best team in the NBA all season. They have unprecedented depth, with no one averaging 30 minutes a game in the regular season, and they play with a natural grace through ball movement that makes them one of the most beautiful-to-watch teams in the NBA.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The Heat are considered as having the best player.\u00a0 Also as written by USA Today:\u00a0 \u201cLeBron James is LeBron James, still the best player in the world…\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The Spurs vs. Heat.\u00a0 The best team vs. the best player.\u00a0 More than one vs. one.\u00a0 Team vs. individual.\u00a0 Therein lies the observation:\u00a0 which is the more successful, profitable approach?\u00a0 Which is more efficient? \u00a0Which rallies people behind you? … accomplishments that are attributed most to a team — where many contribute relatively equal but different efforts in leadership, performance, and decision-making?\u00a0 … or when the leadership, performance, and decision-making is attributed to a single individual?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to ignore the parallels with American leadership.\u00a0 Many also prefer to \u201cgo it alone\u201d as opposed to work together.\u00a0 Now granted, it\u2019s no secret that our often visibly dysfunctional government refuses to work together — preferring to find both convenience and comfort in either arrogance or opposition.\u00a0 Yet this country was established with a system of checks and balances that created three equal levels of government — not one level that\u2019s superior or a single level that\u2019s wisest and best.\u00a0 The checks and balances are intentional.<\/p>\n

Hence, on a day when the lead story continues to center around the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for 5 high-ranking Taliban detainees — when many suggest Bergdahl was a deserter and the price was thus too high to pay — when the White House bypassed Congress — when both Republicans and Democrats complain about not being informed, which may or may not be illegal — when the White House apologizes for an oversight — when it\u2019s hard to discern what\u2019s right, wrong, or somewhere in between — on this day, the Intramuralist makes two primary observations:<\/p>\n

First, we don\u2019t have all the information.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need<\/i> all the information.\u00a0 And thus, we are incapable<\/i> of discerning from the convenience of our living room couch whether the release of a single soldier for five terrorists was foolish or wise.<\/p>\n

And second, some people still prefer to \u201cgo it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please don\u2019t read into the Intramuralist\u2019s observations that I believe it\u2019s foolish to go it alone.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t say that.\u00a0 Note that by \u201cgoing it alone\u201d so-to-speak, LeBron James has won the last two titles; he\u2019s been victorious and successful.\u00a0 Granted, by utilizing the entire team,<\/em> the Spurs had the best record all season long.\u00a0 The Spurs have been successful by tapping into the talents, utilizing the efforts, and including the insight and expetise of far more than a few.<\/p>\n

So who wins?\u00a0 Who will be most successful — the team or the individual? \u00a0At least on the hardwood, we\u2019ll find out soon.<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fascinating event begins this evening, and while the event actually takes place on basketball\u2019s hardwood, I promise that this post is not about sports.\u00a0 As in the recent stories of Donald Sterling and Michael Sam, sports often serves as a societal microcosm.\u00a0 So many pay attention, and the lessons and learning often surpass the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “team vs. individual”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[442,443],"class_list":["post-3306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","tag-bergdahl","tag-the-finals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3306"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3318,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3306\/revisions\/3318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}