D'var Ball

A D'var Torah on the world of basketball.

[dvarball]

Simchat Basketball

NBA Basketball is fairly unique in that most years we feel like we know going in who is going to win the title. Even when we can’t narrow it down to one team, like the Golden State Warriors or Miami Heat, who will hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy, we can usually limit it a handful of teams that have a chance. Yet, that doesn’t diminish the joy of the game. The joy of an 82 game season and playoffs doesn’t change when you think you know the outcome, because it’s all about what will happen between now and June. Which player will make the leap? Which team will be greater than the sum of its parts? How will an overcrowded playoff race in the Western Conference shake out?

We turn the page on a new NBA season tonight with two games - Raptors-Pelicans and Clippers-Lakers - and it feels like an auspicious time to begin, just as we are concluding Simchat Torah. The final Jewish holiday in a busy month of Jewish holidays, Simchat Torah, falls immediately after Sukkot, a joyous fall harvest festival. Simchat Torah means “joy of Torah” and we cap this jubilant week by reading the last verses of the last book in the Torah, Deuteronomy, and beginning the first verse of the first book, Genesis. (There is no off-season for Torah). 

We begin re-reading the same stories and verses that our people have read for thousands of years. The characters don’t change. They still make the same mistakes and say the same lines. They go through the same struggles and achieve the same outcomes. But that doesn’t diminish the joy or meaning that we take from studying Torah. The questions are, how will we grow this year? How will new relationships draw out new meaning from the text? 

But this year, the NBA takes on a new level of uncertainty. Unprecedented player movement has brought us new superstar duos and nearly ten teams that think their time is now. The race to hold Larry OB is going to be fantastic, but my hope for this year is that I don’t let my interest in the outcome override the joy of the journey - the simchat basketball. The ending will work itself out (My bet: Celtics over Clippers in 6), but there’s too much good basketball to not enjoy it all until then.

[dvarball]

Re’eh - Embrace Your Role

This was originally given on 8/30/19

People always ask me why I love basketball so much. It’s more than watching crazy drunks or amazing passes. In part, it’s having played the game for so many years, I see so much outside the play and appreciate the subtle things happening on the floor. But it is more than that too. It’s about the people and their stories. It’s knowing and having followed many of these players for so many years, often since they were teenagers, and watching them grow and struggle, face setbacks and persevere. I appreciate what is at stake for so many of them, in a game and over the course of a season. So a pass is more than a pass, and a shot is more than a shot. It’s part of a long, ongoing narrative, and in each moment, the outcome - success or failure - is uncertain. 

I know what you’re thinking - How can he be talking about basketball? It’s not even football season yet. But for those of us, who follow the game closely, there is an exciting tournament coming up, the FIBA World Cup, which serves as a prelude to next summer’s Olympic games. Teams from around the world are sending their national teams to China to compete for a spot in next year’s Olympics. 

Since the Dream Team in 1992, the US National Team has been filled with NBA All-stars, the best players in the world and the United States usually wins easily. But this year, a long list of the best players have dropped out, and the roster has been filled with role players and young players filled with potential. Players are adjusting to new coaches, new roles, and new teammates. Each wants to do what is best in their own eyes, but for the team to have success, the coaching staff must unify them with a common purpose and sense of cohesion.

It’s a fascinating experiment in team building. Scoring is very important in basketball. And the best players are often the ones who are really great at scoring. But the best team can’t just include the best scorers. It needs to be filled with people who complement each other, who excel in different areas and can embrace their role. If you dream of awards and shoe-deals and fame, can you humble yourself and embrace the dirty work? 

So far, the results have been mixed. The team recently lost an exhibition game to Australia, breaking a 78 game winning streak. 

Perhaps, the greatest example of team building in the history of sports, was the 1980 U.S. Hockey team who achieved the “Miracle on Ice” defeating the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. They beat a seemingly unbeatable team. The Soviet Union had won 5 of the previous 6 gold medals and were filled with professional players, experienced in international play. 

The US team, coached by Herb Brooks, was made up of college players or recent college graduates. It should not have been a close game, but Coach Brooks had a vision for how to put his group together. He needed players who would not do what was best in their own eyes, but would work together toward a common goal. In the film, Miracle, based on this team, Coach Brooks says:  

All-star teams fail because they rely solely on the individual's talent. The Soviets win because they take that talent and use it inside a system that's designed for the betterment of the team. My goal is to beat 'em at their own game

It’s wisdom that comes straight out this week’s Torah portion, Re’eh. In Deuteronomy 12:8, Moses tells the Israelites:

לֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֔וּן כְּ֠כֹל אֲשֶׁ֨ר אֲנַ֧חְנוּ עֹשִׂ֛ים פֹּ֖ה הַיּ֑וֹם אִ֖ישׁ כָּל־הַיָּשָׁ֥ר בְּעֵינָֽיו׃ 

You shall not act at all as we now act here, every person doing what they think is right in their own eyes

Rabbeinu Bahya, a medieval Spanish commentator explains that:

“This verse refers to the problem of private altars which during the transitional 14 years of conquest and distribution of the land were still permitted as sites from which to present offerings, something which had been forbidden while the people were in the desert, seeing the Tabernacle was right in their midst and there was no need to travel in order to offer sacrifices in it.”

For a time, once the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they were free to set up their own altars and offer sacrifices in different high places around Israel. That might have been what was best for each tribe and for each individual. Who wants to travel to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice, when you can do it at your friendly, neighborhood altar? But it was not a strategy to build a nation with a common goal and purpose. Allowing each tribe to do as they please, would risk conflict and prioritize individual goals over God’s purpose of creating an am segulah - a chosen people. 

For that reason, this week’s Torah portion repeatedly mentions: 

הַמָּק֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֨ר יִבְחַ֜ר יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ 

The place that Adonai, your God, will choose.

The place, where the Beit HaMikdash - the Temple would be built - represented the unity and common purpose for the Israelites. To travel there and offer sacrifices meant that some tribes would have to travel further than others, transporting their families, animals, and grains over a longer, more arduous journey. It meant making a sacrifice (to make a sacrifice) for the good of the nation. Which players on this year’s Team USA roster are willing to do the same? For this year’s team to reach its highest potential and fullest expression, each player must find a role and embrace it. Only then will they be able to do what is right in their own eyes, and also what is right for the team. 

[dvarball]

Even Stars Need a System

From 1/25/19

Fans of Boston’s most successful sports franchise, the Boston Celtics, have been very frustrated this year. 

The team came in to the year with great expectations, but has struggled to meet them. As the losses have mounted, players have complained, fought with each other, and been unable to find answers.

The Celtics best player, their All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, has tried to lead them, but has struggled to find his voice in that role. First, he preached patience, then repeatedly called out his younger teammates, questioning their motives. His attempt to lead by telling others what to do was only leading to more stress and exhaustion for him and his teammates.

More recently, Kyrie Irving has seemed to find his footing as the leader of the team, but what he could really use is a visit from the headliner of this week's Torah portion, Yitro. After the Israelites escaped Pharoah and his army, and crossed the Reed Sea to safety, Moses’s father-in-law Jethro “heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, how the LORD had brought Israel out from Egypt” (Ex 18:1) and he brought Moses’s wife Tzipporah and their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, to the wilderness near Mt. Sinai where the Israelites were camped. There, Jethro, a priest of Midian, reunites with Moses, hears all that has happened, and offers a sacrifice to God.

The next day, Moses sits as a judge before the people and Jethro observes Moses struggling in his role as a leader. There’s a line out the door of Israelites, who want to ask Moses what they should do with this or that issue, and Moses is sitting there trying to see every person and answer every question. 

Yitro gives Moses some advice: You’re gonna wear yourself out. You can’t deal with all these problems. 90% are below your pay grade.

You need to find good people and delegate. “Set up chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and let them judge the people at all times. Have them bring every major dispute to you, but let them decide every minor dispute themselves. Make it easier for yourself by letting them share the burden with you.” (Ex 18:21-22) If you do all of this, peace will be with you. 

Essentially, Jethro is telling Moses: Establish a system. Do what you are best at and what only you can do - communicating with God and teaching God’s Torah. Give people roles. Empower them in their roles. And let them do their job.

That was good advice for Moses and it’s good advice for Kyrie Irving and the Celtics. 

But my question is, why did Moses need Yitro’s advice in the first place? He was God’s hand-picked leader for a reason. He was clearly capable, so why was he struggling. In a Midrash on the moment before Moses encounters the Burning Bush, the rabbis explain why Moses was chosen to lead the people of Israel.

Our teachers have said: Once, while Moses was tending to the sheep of his father-in-law, Yitro, one of the sheep ran away. Moses ran after it until it reached a small, shaded place. There, the lamb came across a pool and began to drink. As Moses approached the lamb, he said, “I did not know you ran away because you were thirsty. You are so exhausted!” He then put the lamb on his shoulders and carried him back. The Holy One said, “Since you tend the sheep of human beings with such overwhelming love - by your life, I swear you shall be the shepherd of My sheep, Israel.” (Shemot Rabbah 2:2)

Moses was chosen by God for his love and compassion for each of God’s creatures. But that same sense of duty and responsibility that led him to follow the sheep and gently return it home, was now causing him to sit from morning until night, each day, listening to the problems of his people. As a shepherd, he led from the back, paying attention, listening, and following his flock. But now he has to lead from the front, and he doesn’t really know how to do that.

I’ll spare you the sports radio analysis of how this applies to Kyrie Irving and the Celtics, because I think what’s most important is how this applies in our own lives.

What makes us great in one area, might cause us problems in others. What made us successful at one place, might now be our greatest obstacle. There are many different forms of leadership and we are all capable of being leaders. But we must continue to listen, take feedback, and grow, if we want to continue to succeed. May we all be blessed with wise mentors like Yitro and the ability to hear the advice of those who love us.