As you all know I have a lot of boys and basketball season is the start of craziness at our house. With so many boys who love the sport, we spend a lot of time in gyms, watching games. Tonight, though, the game in our men's league got a little crazy.
After a loose ball foul, one of the opposing team players was so upset he was yelling at the ref, yelling obscenities at the other team and when a smaller player on my son's team bench said the guy should just sit down, the very angry man threatened him and said that he would see him after the game.
It was stunning to me. In our city league you don't usually see behavior like that. They brought in another ref to contain the situation and the mood on the floor was tense. The fun had been sucked out of the game, that's for sure.
But then, on the next time out, the player who'd been threatened and sworn at went over to the angry man and apologized, even reaching out to him for a bro hug. It was truly humbling to see this smaller man be the bigger person and defuse the entire situation with an apology and a hug.
What a great example to everyone who was there about what real sportsmanship is and what it means to reach out to others, even if they're angry or hurtful.
I wish we saw more of that in our Facebook feeds and on our blogs, Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Love overcomes hate. Every time. And these are the kind of examples we can all follow in embracing the love and not accepting the hate.
Even on a basketball court.
I'm an award-winning romantic suspense novelist, but in my free time I love to review books and my fave TV shows, as well as pass along great book deals, and eat Canadian chocolate---not necessarily in that order.
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