The Athlete’s Prayer
Lord, Please clear my head of all distractions
And my heart of all burdens I may bear,
So I may preform my very best,
Knowing you’ll always be there.
Please lift me up before the moment,
So through your eyes I may see,
And have a clearer understanding,
As the game unfolds before me.
With great courage I will meet this challenge,
As you would have me to.
But keep me humble and remind me,
That my strength come from knowing you.
Then when all eyes are upon me,
At the end of this game,
I will turn their eyes to you O’Lord,
And to the glory of your name.
Amen
The poem, The Athlete’s Prayer, is about a player who decides to pray to a higher power and ask for their help, before they take the field for a game. The athlete asks the higher power for a head clear of all distractions and a heart clear of all burdens. These requests directly connect to the buddhist idea of detachment. Ultimately, Buddhists use meditation to detach themselves from feelings of both pain and pleasure and escape their current feelings and emotions. This is exactly what athletes attempt to do through prayer. Taking a brief moment away from the game and asking a higher power to help clear their head and heart of all other feelings allows the athlete to live in the moment and prioritize their focus on the task at hand, which is the game. By doing this athletes are able to forget about all of their other stressors and anxiety inducers and allow them to enjoy the current moment of their life, which positively affects their mental health.
The poem also includes a section where the athlete refers to the courage and strength needed in order to take on the difficult challenge of performing well on the field. The athlete mentions how the strength and courage will come to him only through their connection to the higher power. These statements stress the significance that religion provides to athletes. There is a feeling of emotional relief that comes from the belief and trust in a higher power leading the way for them. Once again, this emotional relief from sports and religion provides an escape from the real world and gives student athletes a moment to truly enjoy themselves. Overall, this poem really emphasizes the importance that sports provides to athletes, and especially student athletes through the process of detachment which ultimately leads to a positive impact on their mental health. The action of being on the field allows players to direct their focus to the sport and your own performance truly does “detach” their minds from everythings they have going on in their life, in the same way Buddhists do when meditating
Dear Basketball,
From the moment
I started rolling my dad’s tube socks
And shooting imaginary
Game-winning shots
In the Great Western Forum
I knew one thing was real:
I fell in love with you.
A love so deep I gave you my all
From my mind & body
To my spirit & soul.
As a six-year-old boy
Deeply in love with you
I never saw the end of the tunnel.
I only saw myself
Running out of one.
And so I ran.
I ran up and down every court
After every loose ball for you.
You asked for my hustle
I gave you my heart
Because it came with so much more.
I played through the sweat and hurt
Not because challenge called me
But because YOU called me.
I did everything for YOU
Because that’s what you do
When someone makes you feel as
Alive as you’ve made me feel.
You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream
And I’ll always love you for it.
But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer.
This season is all I have left to give.
My heart can take the pounding
My mind can handle the grind
But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.
And that’s OK.
I’m ready to let you go.
I want you to know now
So we both can savor every moment we have left together.
The good and the bad.
We have given each other
All that we have.
And we both know, no matter what I do next
I’ll always be that kid
With the rolled up socks
Garbage can in the corner
:05 seconds on the clock
Ball in my hands.
5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1
Love you always,
Kobe
Sports are filled with cliches. But these cliches often ring true. “For the love of sports” to “There is no place like sports”. We frequently hear inspirational stories about triumph and tribulation in the face of adversity – life lessons that translate from the field to our everyday lives. In the case of Kobe Bryant, his poem “Dear Basketball” demonstrates all he learned from the game of basketball. One’s relationship with their sport isn’t all that dissimilar to one with a significant other. There is a serious emotional commitment and time investment to one’s sport. Breakups hurt just like the loss of a championship game or a retirement, and the big wins are comparable to the joy experienced with a loved one. Kobe writes “I gave you my heart… because it came with so much more”. Kobe felt there was a reciprocation between him and the game of basketball, each giving value to each other and their relationship. It is an application of exchange theory, but instead of a relationship between people, it is a relationship between a person and their passion.