The Tourney Is The Journey
The talk has already started. State tournament, playoffs, state championship game.
The players can hardly wait until the playoffs begin and they haven't even played in a single game yet.
They have marked a game on their calendar -- the biggie -- the BYU/Utah game, the Lone Peak/Timpanogos game, the Springville/Spanish Fork game.
Without knowing it, they are effectively skipping the other games on the schedule, like skipping a song on a CD.
Now this is nothing new.
It happens in athletics, it happens in all stages of life.
It begins in kindergarten where coloring with crayons soon gets old. The first graders look like they're having way more fun.
Up the ladder it goes.
I can't wait until I'm in third grade. When I'm in sixth grade. Then the process starts all over again.
If you're in ninth grade, you're not happy being the oldest in junior high, you want to be in high school. If you're a sophomore, you want to be a junior and when you're a junior, all you can talk about is your senior year. When you're a senior you don't want to be in school at all.
The tendency is to look past the present, to hasten tomorrow at the expense of today.
Most college students seldom reflect on how much fun college can be. Their focus is on graduation and job placement.
Yesterday, I talked with Provo basketball coach Craig Drury about his coaching staff, the team he has coming back and the success of his program.
In the process of our conversation, Drury told me, "My whole focus is what are we doing today. I can't do anything tomorrow. I'll never be able to do anything tomorrow. "
The subject keeps coming up from those who have been there and done that. Many of the athletes I talk to who have settled into their jobs and their family life now say the same thing.
Seize the day. Eventually, everyone finds out this simple truth.
Those who believe Christmas is about just one hour on Christmas morning are missing the magic of the season.
With apologies to Booth Tarkington, I've summarized a thought from one of his books:
"A group of boys had gathered in the shade of a tree on a hot August afternoon and were talking about their favorite subject, the future. 'When I become a man.' Being human, though boys, they considered their present estate too commonplace to be dwelt upon. So, when old men gather they say, 'When I was a boy.' It really is the land of nowadays that we never discover. "
In one of the first interviews Utah Jazz guard John Stockton gave after the team was eliminated by Sacramento in the playoffs, he was asked to talk about how he looked at his career since he had never won an NBA championship. The future Hall of Famer, the NBA's all-time leader in assists and steals, talked about the journey of his career being his reward.
In other words the atmosphere of the playoffs. The funny moments on the plane with a teammate. The satisfaction of reaching your potential in one thing. Putting on an NBA uniform. Hitting what has proven to be the most famous shot in Jazz history, a jumper against Houston that sent the Jazz to the NBA Finals.
Stockton's ring didn't come one night in a planned ceremony. It was awarded to him in pieces throughout his 19-year career.
Eventually, the girls on the soccer team at the postseason banquet and the boys on the basketball team after losing a state tournament game in heartbreaking fashion will come to this one conclusion.
The tourney is the journey.
