Be Prepared to Sacrifice for the Team.

An excerpt from Teamwork: The Team Member Handbook

The struggle of “me versus we” is no stranger to team members. You can expect occasional conflict between your selfish interests and what’s best for the team.

Sooner or later, everyone comes up against a situation where he or she must decide whether to “look out for old #1,” or to make personal sacrifices for the greater good of the group. These choices get really tough at times.

In some cases you have to make up your mind with split-second speed. For example, will you pass the ball or go for the shot yourself? Sometimes there’s a lot at stake— prestige, power, or maybe money. Should you share it, keep it all for yourself, or make sure that it goes to someone more deserving? And how about when nobody else on the team is watching? Will you take all the credit for success and dodge the blame for mistakes?

Even if your teammates aren’t watching, word sure gets around. People figure out in a hurry just how much you can be trusted to protect the team. If you “sell out” the group to your selfish interests, how can you expect your teammates to be there when you need them? Personal sacrifice is part of the price you pay for membership in the group . . . for team support when you need it . . . and, most importantly, for the trust of your teammates. 

“When I’m putting together some guys for a run, what I look for is height and jumping ability and shooting ability. But the main thing is a good attitude and guys who’ll give it up and pass the ball. No ball hogs. A person who won’t pass the ball has no value to me. If he guns it every time he gets his hands on it, yeah, he might sink a few, but in the long run he’s gonna hurt the team. And out here we play winners. What that is, is if you win you keep on playing, take on somebody else. If you lose, you sit and maybe you’ll get winners, maybe not. You might wind up sitting a long time. I don’t come out here to sit around and watch other guys play.” 

The basketball courts at Douglas Park in Lexington, Kentucky, were made famous in the late 1970’s in a publication called The In-Your-Face Basketball Book, a guide to the nation’s best inner-city hoops action. Dominic Lewis is a regular at Douglas Park.