Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. (Philippians 2:3-4 NLT)

Be sincere in your love for others. Hate everything that is evil and hold tight to everything that is good. Love each other as brothers and sisters and honor others more than you do yourself. (Romans 12:9-10 CEV)

    For all the rotten behaviors that continue to make sports headlines, there are still those occasional glimpses of someone who pursues a sport with integrity, plays a game well but doesn’t take his star status too seriously, and who finds a way to contain his ego for the sake of the team’s success.

    Take David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs as a case in point. After an academic career at the U.S. Naval Academy, he came into pro basketball as “The Admiral” — and has commanded respect by his example.

    Robinson will retire this year after a 14-year career that has included an NBA championship, an MVP season, a Rookie of the Year Award, a scoring title, two Olympic gold medals, and ten All-Star selections.

God calls you to be a team-player...

    He still believes basketball is a team sport that is played best by people willing to work together for extraordinary outcomes. His coach, Gregg Popovich, points to his unselfishness in welcoming and mentoring his own superstar replacement. Since Tim Duncan was drafted in 1997, The Admiral has been moved out of the spotlight for the sake of Duncan’s role with the team.

    In a Sports Illustrated article a few years back, Robinson explained how his faith helped him handle his role without resentment or demanding to be traded:

“I can’t overstate how important my faith has been to me as an athlete and as a person. It’s helped me deal with so many things, including matters of ego and pride. For instance, I can’t deny that it felt weird to see Tim standing on the podium with the Finals MVP trophy. I was thinking, Man, never have I come to the end of a tournament and not been the one holding up that trophy. It was hard.

“But I thought about the Bible story of David and Goliath. David helped King Saul win a battle, but the king wasn’t happy because he had killed thousands of men while David had killed tens of thousands. So King Saul couldn’t enjoy the victory because he was thinking about David’s getting more credit than he was.

“I’m blessed that God has given me the ability to just enjoy the victory. So Tim has killed the tens of thousands. That’s great. I’m happy for him.”