‘Just trying to win’ attitude doesn’t justify cheating

The coaches in sports are just as important as the players. The coaches of any team are meant to promote honesty and integrity among their players, all while helping their team to victory. That is why Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd is in scorching hot water as of late.

The basketball coach has been accused of cheating. The incident occurred during the Nets vs. Los Angeles Lakers game on the day before Thanksgiving, when he was caught on camera telling one of his players to hit him in order to make the coach spill his drink and cause a timeout. At that point, his team had run out of timeouts and there were only eight seconds left in the high-stakes game. Although at first claiming it was truly an accident, Kidd later confessed to spilling the drinking on purpose, telling reporters, “The league fined me for something that I probably shouldn’t have done.”

The phrase “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying” has been tossed around since the incident has been publicized all across the country on networks ranging from ESPN to CNN.

However, political science freshman Jasmine Emara disagrees. “I am totally against cheating,” she said.

It seems that sports have taken a turn for the worst, if incidents like this are occurring. Major league sports, a favorite pastime for many Americans, aims to promote sportsmanship, not cheating and lying.

Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni spoke with the Los Angeles Times about the Kidd incident. “I don’t think that’s very savvy or cool,” he said.

Emara, a sports enthusiast herself, furthered her complaint with Kidd and agreed with D’Antoni.

“Jason Kidd knows a lot better than to be cheating,” she said. “I disagree with cheating, especially in sports and more strongly when it comes to divisions like the NBA, because at that level, the players should know to be able to work hard enough to win what they deserve.”

Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale took a more humorous spin on Kidd’s situation. When he was asked about it before the Rockets vs. Nets game on Black Friday, the only word he said was “expensive.” This was due to Kidd being fined $50,000 for his drink-spilling incident.

Kidd will always be looked at as a desperate person for his behavior at the Nets vs. Lakers game. While he says he was “just trying to win,” other honest coaches would highly disagree. It seems better to lose honestly than to win by cheating.

Kidd’s cheating ways will go down in infamy, like Lance Armstrong’s steroid usage or the fixing of the 1919 World Series. Those who say that the comparison is dramatic should consider this: There is never an excuse for cheating. There are rules against cheating, and if there was no point in following rules, there would not be any reason to watch any sport, whether it is basketball, baseball or football.

While Kidd’s cheating ways may make some viewers have a more pessimistic view when it comes to sports, the truth ended up getting the last laugh when it came to him: not only was Kidd charged the $50,000 for spilling his drink, but his team still lost the game he cheated for.