The absurdity of not keeping score has reached a new height as a girls’ basketball team in Minnesota has been ejected from its league for being too good. Fox News reports:
The Rogers Area Youth Basketball Association girls high school team was forced to the sidelines by the Northwest Suburban Basketball League — and it’s all because the team is 3-0, Fox 9 reported Saturday. “We found out Friday at lunchtime that we’re not going to be allowed because according to the league our girls were too talented,” coach Jason Hanauska told the station.
RAYBA sent parents a letter that said the main reason for the league’s decision was because other teams in the league “do not want to play RAYBA due to the skill level…”
“Are we supposed to play worse just to make them happy?” team member Tessa McCarthy told the station.
The episode highlights how dominant the notion of equality has become — not equality of rights, but equality of outcomes. Just as the rich are vilified for their success, this girls’ basketball team has been punished for exceptional performance.
Therapist and author Michael J. Hurd explains how this incident heralds a significant culture shift in the United States:
In an earlier America, before any of us were born, the attitude was quite different. It must have been; because if it had not been different, there would never have been any America to inherit. Without attention to excellence and achievement, America would have been the mediocre and second-rate society it’s in the process of becoming today. Under America’s original premise, excelling and rising above the pack is the way to be. When you attain and excel, you do not apologize, shrink back or hang your head in shame. You celebrate. And, better still, those who admire achievement and accomplishment – they used to be the majority – cheer you on as well. Or, at a minimum, they leave you alone and wish you [well]. If they’re envious, they’re ashamed of their envy, they keep it to themselves, and they’re criticized for being envious, if it spills out.
The most stunning aspect of this story is that the complaining teams have no shame; not just the teams, but the coaches and parents associated with them. There was a time when whining about losing was not tolerated in our culture. Now, we apparently have no tolerance for success.
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