(RNS) Long before head coach Doc Rivers found himself defending his Los Angeles Clippers players who were unwanted participants in team owner Donald Sterling’s racist comments all week, he was concerned about another sensitive subject: religion.
It was late 1999, early in Rivers’ first season as coach of the Orlando Magic, and he saw a situation in the locker room that he felt needed to be addressed.
As his players took part in the pregame prayer that was part of their routine, Rivers noticed something he didn’t like.
“I looked up during one of the prayers and Tariq (Abdul-Wahad) had his arms crossed, and you could see he was really uncomfortable,” Rivers said. “So the next game we were standing in a circle and I said, ‘Hey guys, we’re not praying anymore.'”
Rivers describes himself as a “very religious” man, having grown up in the Second Baptist Church in Maywood, Illinois, and praying on his knees every evening at his home to this day. But he prefers to practice privately and is quick to note that he has only gone to church for funerals in the past 15 years.
So, that day, he decided that his teams would also keep their religious practices private.
“We don’t pray anymore,” Rivers remembers telling his team. “I want to take a minute. Everyone closes their eyes. We may all have different religions, we may have different gods, we may just take a minute to compose. If you want to pray individually, you can do so. If you want to meditate, do whatever you want.
“Then, after that match, Tariq Abdul-Wahad came up to me, gave me a teary-eyed hug and said, ‘Thank you.’ It’s so important to me. No one ever respected my (Muslim) religion. He said, ‘I’ll give you everything I have.’
This NBA season has been unprecedented in mixing basketball and unresolved social issues — from Jason Collins becoming the first openly gay athlete to play in a major professional league, to Royce White, who has suffered from illness mental, through Sterling. situation. There has been a strong push for increased tolerance on all fronts. Yet the debate over religion and how coaches and players can best handle it remains fluid.
With Rivers managing his work world one way and Golden State Warriors coach/ordained minister Mark Jackson another, there’s no better sign of how big this debate is than this particular series.
After all, their growing rivalry reached this point in part because of an October 31, 2013 pregame chapel controversy and the Clippers’ decision to break league tradition and force the Warriors to pray alone.
Jackson’s strong Christian beliefs and practices are well known: the former All-Star point guard who found God later in life and who has perhaps the most devout locker room in the league sees great value in sharing his spirituality with his players.
That’s been the case since his coaching tenure began in 2011. But never was it more evident than on a recent Easter Sunday, when eight of his 15 players walked the 18 miles from their Beverly Hills hotel , through Los Angeles traffic. on the team bus and to Jackson’s nondenominational church in Van Nuys, Calif., then to practice at UCLA. A second bus to the practice site was arranged for those who did not want to go to church.
Jackson isn’t the only one to mix religion and rhyme. Monty Williams, who coaches Rivers’ son Austin, has incorporated the two in his own way since becoming coach of the New Orleans Pelicans in 2010. Stars such as Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dwight Howard of the Houston Rockets and Stephen Curry makes his beliefs clear and does not hesitate to praise God in his media interviews.
Each NBA arena has a room dedicated to the pre-game chapel in which interested players from both teams can, with the exception of the Clippers, participate at the same time. The Thunder even hold a pregame invocation on center court at Chesapeake Energy Arena, during which a nondenominational prayer is said, although they are the only team to have such a practice.
According to the New York Times, those who say the pregame prayer range from Protestants to Roman Catholics, rabbis and Native American spiritual leaders. The report states that the NFL’s Thunder and Carolina Panthers are the only ones among 141 North American men’s professional teams to do so (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL and MLS).
Mark Jackson also cites Phil Jackson, the legendary coach nicknamed “Zen Master” whose spiritual paths have been praised over the years due to his unprecedented success. While his Buddhist beliefs are considered by many to be more innocuous than the more pious style of a Mark Jackson or a Williams, the 68-year-old who grew up with Pentecostal ministers as parents paints a different picture in his latest book, “Eleven”. Rings.”
Before training camps with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson – who said he borrowed this technique from NFL coaching legend Vince Lombardi – would line up his players in a row on the baseline and say: “God commanded me to train you. young men, and I accept the role entrusted to me. If you want to accept the game I embrace and follow my coaching as a sign of your commitment, cross this line.
Former Lakers small forward Matt Barnes, now with the Clippers, said Phil Jackson’s basic ritual was no longer used by the time he played for him in the 2010-11 season, his last in as a coach. But the meditation sessions that were always part of Jackson’s routine, he said, were still in full effect.
“I think the main thing I took away from Phil was just to relax and clear your mind,” said Barnes, who noted that these Lakers meditate three or four times a month with the lights off in the room of the team’s cinema. “It was just about sitting down, relaxing, having good posture and breathing. Drink incense from time to time. Just silence. Sit, breathe and be in touch with your mind and soul.
“I think the guys bought in because of what (Jackson’s) record showed. But I really don’t think forcing anything (is good), whether it’s a religion or a point of view. Like I said, Phil’s stuff was never forced.
Mark Jackson cited the two Easter Sunday buses as an example of how he always respects the beliefs of others, and he said that players who don’t share his worldview need not fear for their game time. game or worry about their role on his team. But Jackson clearly sees his spirituality as a way to inspire his colleagues and gets excited when he talks about having a positive influence on others.
Jackson said he has never seen a player express concerns. “I am who I am, so I think people get more out of it than what they are,” he said. “I am not a coach, nor a pastor, nor a husband, nor a father, nor a son. When you see me, you see everything. So I don’t separate them. But I am respectful to everyone.
Just like Rivers, who simply chooses to go with a different style.
“If there’s 75 percent (who believe one way), that to me is 25 percent who (don’t believe),” Rivers said. “To me, if it’s 95 percent, the 5 percent deserves the same treatment as everyone else. And I just think that’s what we need to do. If it was the church, then it’s different. It’s not a church. These are our jobs. So our job comes first, respect comes second, and I think that’s the way it should be.
