How often do athletes bring out the best in each other?
It's an interesting question to ponder after
Rafael Nadal took Wimbeldon away from
Roger Federer in the fading English light. It was one of those titanic clashes you never forget watching. It was the equivalent of watching Beethoven and Mozart compose a piano concert together, with clashing styles of power and grace coming together, hitting the wrong notes every now and then, but ultimately combining for a product greater than what the two might put together individually.
Of course we know Beethoven and Mozart never worked together, but if there was a tennis equivalent, this might've been it. And in sports, we rarely get the opportunity to see two players, two teams bring out the best in one another. Sports aren't often a matchup of the ideal--they happen rarely, even in a world where the number of sports we watch borders on the infinite.
In football it's rare to see two great teams bring out the best in one another because they're too busy knocking the hell out of one another to appreciate the game of the other. This year's Super Bowl brought out the worst in the Patriots (doing just enough to stay ahead) and the best in the Giants. Baseball suffers from the same problem; it is more dependent around the surrounding historical context (the Yankees trying to win their fourth straight under the specter of 9/11, the Red Sox battling against their own history) to have added resonance with the viewer.
Hockey and soccer is full of plenty of great finishes, but in between the drama and goals is plenty of interlude, defense, and penalties. In basketball the instances where both teams are playing at their best have been minimal--you could argue that during the 2008 NBA Finals, neither team played great basketball at the same time. We want to see teams giving each other their best shots, but it doesn't happen often. You could probably name games where both teams were playing well at the same time on your fingers.
Ultimately, it's harder for both teams to play at the same level at the same time because it requires a group to succeed collectively. It nevertheless doesn't make. People have pined for Tiger and Phil, but they have never played their best golf at the same time. Even when Woods has won his fights, he has never seemed vulnerable. He was fighting the course and his swing more than anyone else. Even his great win was more of an endurance of will than upping the ante with
Rocco Mediate. We still haven't seen anything like Nicklaus and Palmer and Player to develop--Tiger has stood on his own. Everyone else falls.
To delve even further into the individual sports, only in the one-on-one sports have we ever seen intense personal rivalry develop. It was Schmeling and Louis, Ali and Frazier, Leonard and Hearns which connected boxers to the masses, and provides it with its color; mixed martial arts is beginning to realize that too. But the individuals were at the center, not the game. Fighting by its very nature brings out the most primal in each and every one of us, and even though it's compelling, it's by no means bringing out the best in each other.
No sport has needed more elevation of rivlary than tennis, which has depended on Borg, McEnroe and Connors, Sampras and Agassi, and the Williams sisters. Now in step Federer and Nadal, who barely let each other be broken during Sunday's match. Nadal dictated pace and power, yet didn't look ready to take it away from the defending champion. Federer didn't look dominant, but everytime it seemed he was about to fall over he came right back, taking 0-30 defecits and eviscerating them ace by ace. Everytime he looked down he came back. He didn't give away Wimbledon. Nadal simply outlasted him.
Of course these guys are comparable to Ali and Frazier only when they step into the arena; their dynamic force on the field of play does not translate into real-life chraisma. Federer maintains all the ferocity of a cuddly teddy bear, while Nadal's chewing habits will probably earn him great admiration from the beaver folk. They're tennis robots, which is to be expected of the current generation of great personalities.
They don't need to be colorful off the field. They let their games speak for themselves. And last night they delivered what could be their magnum opus.
Discussion for the readers: When have you seen athletes bring out the best in each other?
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