Wins and Words

I still don’t know if the Mavs can beat the Heat in this series. I surely do hope so, because I like the one team and. . . the other, no so much.

I like a lot of the “old” guys more than the “new” ones. Maybe it is because the culture (e.g. when it didn’t take blood to produce a foul, and running your mouth to the official got you a quick ejection) of basketball has changed, or perhaps it is because I have just gotten old myself.

I don’t remember Larry Bird mugging for the crowd when he made any number of impossible shots. I don’t remember Michael Jordan being brash, constantly, purposefully boastful of his abilities, or putting himself above the “team.” I know that is what I like about Dirk Nowitzki. He keeps his mouth shut most of the time, and seems to recognize that it takes five guys working together to get the task accomplished.

A lot has been said by the “commentators,” or “color men” during this series, mostly going on and on about the “fact” that James is the best player in the league, maybe the best player ever. Hummmm. . .I wonder  if they ever saw Bird, Johnson, Jordan, Dr. J, Jabar, even Bryant, and so on. I can tell you one thing for absolutely sure – I’ll take Nowitzki over James anytime, all the time.

I have always believed that the “words” of the Church have overloaded the “win” of the Church. We spend a lot of time talking about who we are, how great it is to be us, how we win “in the end.” We expend a whole lot less time accomplishing the task set before us by our Lord. To put it pretty bluntly, it isn’t what you say – it’s what you do, that counts.