Something very important happened last week, as it does every year mid-March. It was the ACC Tournament, when the men’s basketball teams representing Atlantic Coast Conference schools battle it out in a five day tournament. This year it was in Charlotte, and it is frequently in North Carolina, because of its suitable venues and central location in the ACC.
Duke won the tournament, and the regular season ACC title, which I love. But something else happened during the tournament that I have been considering. Duke played Carolina (by the way, Carolina can never mean South Carolina, which may as well be North Georgia) in a semi-final game, and Duke, being ranked no. 1 in the nation was expected to win easily. And in the first half that is what happened. Duke was up by well over twenty points, and it looked like it was going to be a blowout. But Carolina came out in the second half and had an amazing comeback. With only four seconds left in the game Carolina was down by only one and they were shooting two free-throws. Lubin missed the first of the two, but had one free throw left which would most likely force overtime. He made the second free throw, but another Tarheel, Jae'Lyn Withers, made the mistake of his career and stepped into the lane too early (before the ball left the shooter’s hand) which meant that made free thrown did not count, and Carolina lost four seconds later.
Don’t get me wrong, I wanted Duke to win. But I hated to see Carolina lose that way. It was a huge mistake, a mental lapse that Withers never should have allowed happen. Withers is a fifth-year senior, a seasoned and experience student athlete, and this mistake was one that would’t be expected even from a high school player.
I thought about Jae'Lyn Withers and his successful career at Carolina. I thought about all of the good games he played, all of the points scored, all of his assists, rebounds, all of his wins. And I thought about how easy it would be to remember him not for any of that, but for that big mistake this past Friday night against Duke.
It is so easy to remember people for the biggest mistakes they make. For people to always carry the label of the worst thing they have ever done. It seems that we have the capacity to let memory fade of all the good, but never to forget the bad. Of that day when it all went so badly. Their worst decision. It is so easy to remember that. This morning I read the the portion of the Sermon on the Plain in Luke’s gospel in which Jesus tells us “don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” And while Jesus is saying many things here, he is at least strongly implying that we all have things for which we can be judged, so we should be careful not to judge others. We all have worst mistakes.
Hubert Davis, Carolina’s head coach, is a class act. From the moment Withers stepped into the lane too early all the way into the press conference following the game, coach Davis showed great mercy. He did everything he could to allow Withers to keep his dignity, to save face, and to not allow the loss to be only laid at his fault. The mistake hurt, but he kept it in perspective.
Show mercy. Don’t remember the worst about people, but remember the best. May mercy be shown to you, and may others never remember the worst about us. God doesn’t.