Most Championship calibre teams have great basic components. NBA players stack teams with examplary players. Other competitive sports for example, e-games, Dota Champion teams often have an elite player or two in the roster. Smart teams that want to be robust even have three. Elite MMA gyms have several champions in weight classes from heavyweight to featherweight, even lady champions. The best chess grandmasters have the best laid plans to win against challengers. Great attracts great. Championship aura has the scent of champions in the midst.
Now compare that to a country club. Here people know people. They get friendly, or even at least non-hostile, sociable. You can practice people relations, or personal-politicing here. This is a place where champions are not bred, if not never. The concerns of this group is not competition, but harmony, allegiances, self-benefits over group achievement, coercion, developing one’s network of friends, nesting in the group.
There is a huge disparity, but it takes a little effort to transition from championship contender to country club. Have you taken out a pillar of strength, just to accomodate an ornamental statue? Have you removed an elite player and at what cost? Hopefully not to retain a country club member.
Trophy teams often have no overlap with country clubs. You are either one or the other. The group other makes the result wanted, or pats each other’s backs after the game. Each NBA season the playoff contenders can be thought of in the ranks of champions. The other teams are in country club mode. It takes but a few steps to be a country club. But to be winners, a whole lot of no-nonsense, actual results, crushed pride, painful decisions, urgency, and sacrifice have to be made.
Not to hate on country clubs, no. There is a time for friendship and professionalism, and it is best not to confuse these with each other. Those that can’t identify the difference, become very warm, homely clubs. In a professional’s world, it is high stakes, high productivity, and of course high gains. But the way of the conqueror, the elite, has to be both effective and efficient. Trying to compensate for one with the other can be tragic, against an opponent that has both. No elite players on the team? Effectivity lost. Bad coaching staff? Effectivity and efficiency lost.
Like a team pushing a boulder up a mountain, momentum is killed when there are stops, and when weakening of the team is done. Momentum has to be built up not extingusihed. Can’t expect achievement when teams are not helped, and when weaker elements are placed in.
For example, during the Warriors feud between Durant and Green, Green was left standing. It was a country club move. When the Lakers acquired Lebron, and surrounded him with high credential players, that was a Championship maneuver. When Steve Nash was traded to the Phoenix Suns, he won two NBA MVPs. That was a winning move for the Suns. When Sacramento Kings got Chris Webber, he became an All-Star 4 times. That was no country club move at all.
It takes a lot, to be counted among the great. It will consume us, mentally, emotionally, financially, physically. Or we can just settle for the amazing Pina Coladas amidst the greenery of the country club.
uppedlife 