Greif’s McDonough Contest Essay
Published in the April 17, 2020 edition.
On Tuesday, the Wakefield Daily Item reported that Wakefield Memorial High School senior Noah Greif won 2nd place amongst 12th-graders in the 2020 Will McDonough Writing Contest. The following is his essay.
By NOAH GREIF
One shot.
Throwing a rubber orange ball coated with leather into a net. This simple yet complex action can define a person’s day, career or even life.
Jordan Poole, a Michigan basketball player playing in only his second NCAA Division 1 Men’s basketball tournament game, got the chance of a lifetime in a matchup against Houston in 2018.
Down 63-61 with only 3.6 seconds left in the game, Poole nailed a hail mary three to give Michigan an incredible win to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. The cameras immediately panned in on Poole being chased and mobbed by his teammates, then turned to the heart-broken faces of the Houston players, knowing their season was over. What the cameras next displayed was the tough yet important connection between these two drastic emotions – sportsmanship.
One of the teammates chasing after the hero of the game, Poole, was junior Moritz “Mo” Wagner. Wagner was essentially in his last season at Michigan despite being a junior, as he was good enough to be drafted into the NBA.
In the middle of his celebration, Wagner saw Corey Davis, the point guard for Houston, standing on the sideline with his jersey covering his face, trying to hide the tears streaming down his face. Prior to Poole’s game-winning shot, Davis had two free throw shots that if he had sunk, would have put the game out of reach. Davis could not convert either free throw, giving Michigan the chance to win the game.
While the final result was certainly not Davis’s fault, the notion of having the chance to send his team to the Sweet Sixteen at the highest level of college basketball probably haunted Davis for weeks, and without the help of Wagner, could have affected him for the rest of his life.
The concept of a free throw can be so complex. You have a free shot at the basket, with no defender covering you. But in reality, there are so many internal obstacles against the free throw – your conscience, the crowd, and the pressure to succeed and not let your team down.
At the end of the game, as the Michigan and their fans went crazy and Houston players collapsed on the parquet floor in disbelief, Corey Davis must have felt like a man walking alone in the deep confines of space.
Even though Mo Wagner was experiencing the overwhelming joy of having his college career continue in the blink of the eye, the Michigan junior had the clarity to come over to Davis and comfort him. Wagner didn’t need to say anything. He just wrapped his arm over Davis’s shoulder and hugged him.
Seeing this simple yet amazingly powerful gesture by Wagner is rare in one of the biggest stages in not only college sports, but all of sport. The NCAA Basketball Tournament, more commonly known as “March Madness,” has turned into a commercialized spectacle. In 2019, an astounding 17.2 million brackets were submitted to ESPN as part of their Bracket challenge.
People have become so obsessed with trying to predict which teams will win, that they lose sight of the meaning behind the tournament. It is truly about young men, mostly in their early 20s, playing the game they love and grew up with.
Wagner took himself out of the celebration and sympathized with Davis through a feeling every basketball player has felt at some point: losing.
During the offseason, Davis could have become depressed and lost his love for the game, but with the help of Wagner’s gesture, Davis took that losing feeling and used it as motivation to become a better player for the next season.
In the 2018-2019 season, Davis led his team further in the Sweet Sixteen as the leading scorer for Houston, averaging 17.1 points per game as well as being a unanimous selection to the First-team All-American conference.
In a moment of indescribable happiness, Mo Wagner entered into the indescribable pain of Corey Davis. It was more than basketball. It was a human connection – giving comfort and inspiration to those who need it most, even when we are well-off ourselves – the epitome of sportsmanship.