A for Effort

Right? I was always taught “hard work pays off.” I never really knew what it meant but my parents and enough smart people around me said it so I bought in. To me, the baseline was hard work. Lack of effort could never be an excuse.

This blog started with my vision to compare themes in sports to themes in life. So here are some stats from this sports week.

In a regular season NBA game with the Utah Jazz and the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, the teams made a combined 44 3-pointers in 48 minutes of regulation. It is tied for the most in NBA history. History. The other time it happened was in 2023 in a double overtime game (10 minutes more of playing time).

I play fantasy basketball. Peyton Pritchard and Derrick White are on my team. They are humble incredible team first guys on the Celtics. And also lights out shooters. Peyton Pritchard comes off the bench. White and Pritchard both made 7 3s Thursday night. Pritchard shot 15 3s.

If someone can find me one player who played in the NBA who shot 15 3s off the bench in one game in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, or 2010s, I will give you $20. I just need the box score screen shot.

Do you know why I am so confident bench players in the past half a century didn’t shoot 15 3s a game? Because they couldn’t get them off. They had a hand in their face. Because you are taught and coached to close out “hard” on shooters and get a hand up. Mind you, Pritchard is my height, maybe an inch smaller. If a 6’5 guy closes out at you, it impacts the shot, if you even shoot it.

The score at half of the Suns Jazz game was 76-71. We are now growing accustomed to high scores like that.

The NBA instituted an NBA cup last year - essentially a mid season tournament where every player on the team makes just south of a million bucks. Real incentives. Apparently the motivation is to get the guys at the end of the bench the extra coin. There’s a trophy, there’s Vegas, there’s hoopla.

The semifinals were tonight. The score at half in the west (same conference as jazz suns) was 42-41.

• Regular season game: 76-71 at half, 44 3 pointers in game

• NBA cup meaningful semi finals: 42-41 at half, 7 3 pointers at half

Numbers don’t lie. This isn’t as simple as “oh, just an off shooting night.” I tuned in for a minute or two. Guys were deflecting passes. Guys were hustling. Guys were working hard. And when professional players work hard on defense, it is hard to score on them. Even if you’re a professional.

Somewhere along the way, people have reset the base level of hard work. The base level is now closer to a minimum vs. a maximum. I can’t truly figure out why that is. But it all comes down to how and when you are taught. And things got turned upside down during the pandemic - keeping people on an equal playing field was impossible. There wasn’t a forum to instill hard work and lead by example. Instead of “going the extra mile” at the office by triple checking numbers in a presentation, people were at home going the extra mile on their daily dog walks.

I worked 200 days in a row as a junior associate In banking in 2016. In 2021, a junior associate asked me if she could go to the beach on the weekend with a huge presentation due on Monday. I obviously entered into a dumbfounded state. There are other recent anecdotes in other professions - including hospitality - of a lack of effort. I won't go into the specifics.

NBA ratings are down. There are no suits on the sidelines, there are sweatsuits - almost all black with a tiny unidentifiable emblem of the team they coach. Players decide to take nights off, literally and figuratively. And candidly, players are not working hard. Maybe they get paid too much. Maybe the outside influences of preserving your body are overwhelming and exaggerated. Maybe the meter has reset.

But clearly, we have the inner strength to work hard. Players still have it. When they are playing for something meaningful, like this NBA Cup, they are doing all the simple things that fall under the umbrella of working hard.

You learn from working hard. It makes you a better professional. A better person. And it’s sad to say, but people don’t want to work hard any more. The Suns and the Jazz were not working hard Friday night. They were going for flash, for stats, for records. And that’s the majority of the NBA.

It’s setting a poor example for future generations, and future generations are already in a world of hurt. There has been a seismic attitude shift and the typical life lessons of the golden rule, hard work, and general human decency have left the building.

Houston, we have a problem. But you know what, the Houston Rockets showed us we still have the ability to fix that problem. They worked hard on defense and held the Thunder to 41 points at half. Everyone has the switch. But now the commonplace way of thinking leads to things less being meaningful along the way. An unfortunate reality if you really think about it.

Right about now, collectively, we get a C for effort. And last time I checked, that’s not an expression for a reason.