Anatomy of Three Losing Trades

The most critical difference between former Knick John Starks and Kobe Bryant is that Starks is utterly oblivious to his stat line; Kobe is willing to sublimate himself for the team on the nights he just doesn't have it.

Starks couldn’t seem to tell if he’d gone 12 for 20 or 1 for 20 on any given night. Bryant just won his first championship without Shaq because of his willingness to admit when he was a better distraction than offensive threat. He didn’t seem to force a shot the entire playoffs of 2009 but there were nights he would pass the basketball the way Gretzky could dish a puck. He’d end up with 10 points, 12 assists, and a victory. Starks would have ended a playoff game, any playoff game, with at least 30 shots, 5 assists, 11 alienated teammates and a loss.

Guess which guy is going to the Hall of Fame? Possibly both -- but Kobe will be the guy voted in, and John Starks will have to pay.

The point is this: Everybody loses. Joe Louis, Secretariat, Man O’ War (lost to a horse named “Upset”), Larry Bird, and Mike Tyson, who I spent most of my college life betting against. It’s not losing that separates the goods from the greats: It’s how they handle defeat.

Joe Louis beat Max Schmeling, who had beaten Louis badly 2 years prior, into an extended hospital stay. Schmeling responded by whining that he was fouled when he was struck in the back -- of course, he'd turned his back because he was crying out in pain from punches to his face. He then joined Hitler’s army, all the while denying he was a Nazi, and briefly retired to Germany, where Coca-Cola (KO) put him in charge of German distribution. He lived the rest of his life a multi-millionaire.

Joe Louis, by contrast, was hounded by the IRS after joining the army without realizing the hundreds of thousands of dollars he’d donated to the armed services wasn’t tax deductible.

Two lessons here: First; life isn’t fair; second, real champions recognize the pain of losing, learn from it, and fight back harder and smarter.