Never Underestimate the Heart of a Loser

After coaching the Houston Rockets to their 2nd straight NBA championship in 1995, Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich admonished all the so-called basketball experts who didn’t think that the Rockets couldn’t successfully defend their championship with a firm reminder: “Never underestimate the heart of a champion”. If there’s anything that recent sporting events have made clear, it’s that Tomjanovich’s assertion has its own, equally dramatic corollary: “Never underestimate the heart of a loser.” Prior to this year’s NBA season, that’s exactly what Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning were: losers. Prior to last week’s shocking upset of Brazil, that’s what Zinedine Zidane and the entire French side looked like: losers.

However, to lump such luminary non-winners such as Payton and Mourning together with Vince Carter and his ilk is to do Payton and Mourning a great disservice. Vince Carter, the undisputed king of the hyphenated monicker (“Half Man, Half Amazing”, prior to this season, “Half Man, Always Injured”, and particularly for his sterling non-contact sport performance for this year’s playoffs “Half Man, Half Woman”) is a loser by choice. Payton and Mourning were losers by fate. Even a cursory check of Payton and Mourning’s storied careers would affirm that they never intended to lose; in fact, they often went down fighting. Vince Carter’s another story. His talent is all-NBA, his potential is absolutely staggering. His heart? Let’s just say that in the medical profession, Carter’s heart would fetch quite a considerable sum if it were available for transplant; it’s never been used.

France began its World Cup campaign slowly, gingerly, almost as if it were anticipating that the ghost of their horrendous 2002 Cup showing was just right around the corner, waiting to embarrass Les Blues into turning yellow. But footballer Zinedine Zidane had other plans. Knowing that, at the ripe old age of 34, this would be his last World Cup, Zidane was determined to serve up a sumptuous feast of beautiful football, showing that while he is French, there is just enough Viking in his blood to want to go out in a blaze of glory. Playing against the finest, most consistently skilled, and inventive football players in the world, Zidane decided to show the Brazilians a thing or two about how the game should be played. The result? A shocking 1-0 win over the 2002 World Cup holders.

Never underestimate the heart of a loser. Sometimes, just sometimes, if you scratch the surface, a champion emerges.