February 2009 Issue

Many of us here at Responsible Sports, as big sports fans, watched in amazement the first week of February when NBA Basketball had a first: Kobe Bryant posted a 61-point game in New York’s Madison Square Garden, followed by LeBron James who nearly recorded a triple-double along with his season high 52 points. But what caught our attention was the story that emerged when the NBA determined that LeBron fell short of his triple-double, determining that one of his rebounds should have been attributed to a teammate.

While both men clearly demonstrated exceptional effort, it’s LeBron’s performance that really had us thinking about youth sports and the idea of effort goals. By the stats keepers, LeBron’s game was not nearly as successful as Kobe’s. And yet his effort was exactly what his team, his coach, and he himself set out to accomplish.