During my
NBA career I played for plenty of teams who protected the lead. But it’s a strategy that can backfire if a team don’t exploit their strengths
The relationship between sports and society has always been about more than exercise and entertainment. As the popularity of sports movies and TV shows attests, it’s also a multi-tasking metaphor for core cultural values such as teamwork, sportsmanship, fair play, and overcoming emotional and physical obstacles to persevere. But sports is also about winning – and there are lessons the
Democrats can learn from sports strategies if they want to triumph in the 2020 elections.
One of the trickiest sports strategies is “protecting the lead,” in which the individual or team rack up a significant lead, then play much more conservatively in an effort to hold on to the advantage. The theory is that playing more conservatively leads to fewer mistakes and gives the opponent fewer opportunities to catch up. At the same time, the opposition have to play more aggressively – and risk making mistakes. During my
basketball career one way of protecting the lead involved running out the clock. We passed and dribbled until the shot clock had a couple of seconds left, and then made our shot. Eating up those valuable seconds meant the other team have less time for their comeback. They also have to take riskier shots and run hard, leading to fatigue. It’s sound game theory and it was often successful on the teams I was a part of.