Power and Love and Basketball

When my dad taught me how to play basketball, he taught me the skills I needed to win games. He taught me how to shoot, defend, and read opponents. As I continued to play basketball through my childhood, I continued to be taught more ways to win. I guess you can say I played basketball with a focus on “power.” It seems, in my case, Kahane was right when he wrote that people tend to focus on either power or love (71). However, basketball “power” did win games, tournaments, and championships but it didn’t allow me to enjoy the game. I didn’t have “love” for the game and I always put myself down after every loss. Power and love on their own can provide for people but they may not always be enough. A combination of the two is necessary in order to get the most out of the situation.

But during high school, I discontinued playing in leagues and tournaments and participated in cross country and track. During this time off from competitive basketball, I continued to play with friends and practice on my own time. During this time, I grew to enjoy playing because of my friends and because I was having fun. I started to appreciate the game and began to have a “love” for it. As I started to get back into basketball, I was playing the best basketball of my life. I participated in leagues again and I was doing better than I had ever done before. A balance of practicing “power” and playing because I had a “love” for the game allowed me to play to the best of my ability. Even as I lost, I still held my head high whenever I knew I competed to the best of my ability.

Love and power must stay connect because they make each other more generative (71). In other words, they both work themselves out to benefit each other. In my case, I had already focused on power and was able to find the love I had for basketball to make a drastic change in the way I played during basketball games and my reactions toward game outcomes. A balance in love and power changed the type of player I was. The same can be said for this class, we are making efforts to spread the knowledge (power) to the people in the community and we leave it to those people to act on that power for the love of the community that they are a part of. If a balance of power and love for basketball can change the player I am then a balance of power and love for the community can change people to act for the benefit of their community.