War and sport

Often important challenges in sport, like an important match, are compared with war and some players use a vocabulary more suitable to military life than to a leisure activity like sport (they tend to come from Argentina and Uruguay). Some days ago, the film “Saving Private Ryan” was shown on TV and that brought me the inconvenience of such comparison.

Last Friday, the Spanish national team of basketball had to play against Argentina, in the semi-finals of the World Basketball Championship. Luis Scola, who actually has been playing in Spain for several years, talked the day before about a battle and the correct attitude in order to succeed. In my opinion, he was giving a wrong approach to what was going to happen, since it is only a match, where everybody is expected to do their best but where nothing can be compared with war. For example, losers (Argentina) could come back home and they were not killed not made prisoners. Here is the first difference with war. Second one: rules. Basketball has some rules and if you do not observe them, you are punished. In war, as far as I know, there are no rules, only a goal: wiping the enemy out.

Europe has suffered too much in XX century due to wars, and everybody should treat the matter with a minimum of respect. Millions of human beings lost their lives in wars (First and Second World Wars mainly, but also in Spanish Civil War, colonial wars in Africa, Finnish Civil War,…); they lost innocence, their youth, their life,… Their sacrifice deserves our deepest respect.

Scola and all the sportspeople thinking themselves as warriors or soldiers are not showing that due respect towards them. What the f*** knows Scola about war? If they are willing to join a war, I can tell them many places to go. But, please, do not mix competitiveness with plain dumbness; one can be extremely competitive without speaking like somebody unaware of the meaning of war.