The Men on the Bench

The Men on the Bench

It takes more than five players to make a winning team. The

starting five may win a game, but it takes the whole team to win

the championship—to go all the way. The team is really like an

iceberg. You see the starting five, but underneath it all is that big,

wide, strong base—the rest of the team. This is the part of the

team that builds the character of a lasting winner. The more

dedicated the man on the end of the bench, the harder he works,

the more he pushes and strengthens the starting player—the higher

he pushes the iceberg out of the water—the bigger it gets—the

better the team. If he quits, doesn’t give his all or becomes

complacent in his position he erodes that strong base and erodes

the character of the team. He contributes to the errors in a tense,

one point game, he is partly to blame for the mental lapse with four

minutes to play in that big rivalry, he undermines the total effort

necessary for the team to come back from a ten point deficit in a

championship game. And yet this player on the bench must be

there—watching, waiting and hoping sometimes agonizingly for

that chance to use his special skill to better the team effort—to make

the base of that iceberg stronger—to help build the character of the

team. Yes, agonizingly because he knows there is a chance he

won’t play because he is the smallest man waiting to break open the

press or he may be the big man called in an instant to shut down

the unusually big center who is hurting the team inside. He may

even be the man that is hurt but working twice as hard to be

physically fit in time for the playoffs. He may be the man on the

bench who demonstrates to the fans that his team really has

character from the bench to the basket. But even more important,

he may be the whole bench that the player looks to late in the game

when he is hurting, out of breath and burning inside for the spirit

that pushes that enthusiasm and that love necessary to make the big

play and win the game for the whole team.

When the game is over, when the season ends and all the fans and

sports writers are talking about the top of the iceberg, the stars and

heroes, the players will know the real winner is the team, the whole

iceberg. Especially the base, the men on the bench who build the

character to make the team a lasting winner.