Oh, here I go again with a sports story! I’m sorry but this was a historical event that happened yesterday that supplies a great lesson. Hang in there and we’ll get to the Biblical application.
Wilt Chamberlain, Gail Goodrich, Happy Hairston, Jim McMillian, Jerry West, Pat Riley. Those were the big names playing for the LA Lakers during the 1971-1972 season. The Lakers had set a record that has not yet been beaten.
The season began on October 15, 1971 with a season-opener win over the Detroit Pistons. Game 9 of the season was on October 31. When the game ended, the Laker’s record was 6-3. This would be the last game the Lakers would lose until January 9, 1972. Thirty-three consecutive wins put the LA Lakers in the history books.
The game that broke the streak was against the Milwaukee Bucks. It was a high scoring game with 224 points scored between the two teams. The Bucks had a not-so-secret weapon in their arsenal, a player named Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. Later in his career, he would change his name to that which is more familiar: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
He had only played two seasons with the Bucks and would eventually finish his career with the Lakers. The match-up against the Lakers would prove to be too much for them to handle. The 7-foot 2-inch center dropped 39 points against them. The high scorer for the Lakers, Jerry West, only had 20. The final score was 120-104 in favor of the Bucks.
Bill Sharman, the Lakers’ coach, went into the locker room with his team after the game, closing it to the press for 15-minutes. The Lantern, the student-run newspaper at Ohio State University, ran an article from the LA Times on January 11, 1972. The opening paragraph read, “When it was over Sunday afternoon and the longest winning streak by a major-league sports team was ended at 33 , Los Angeles Lakers coach Bill Sharman said , “I had planned to tell them something corny like ‘hey , West , you really blew another one . ‘ You know, Jerry hasn’t played in a losing regular-sea-son game in a year. ” But Sharman made no jokes. He found nothing amusing about the way the NBA’s defending champion Milwaukee Bucks beat the Lakers at their own game.”1
The Lakers would finish their regular season 69-13. They swept the Bulls in the Western Conference semifinals, beat the Bucks in the Western Conference finals 4-2, and won the NBA Finals 4-1 over the New York Knicks.
To put it another way, they lost some fights but won the war.
Isn’t this the story of life? Nobody wins every battle, every fight, every skirmish. Sometimes, we feel like we get our teeth handed to us on a platter. But, as Christians, we know that the war has already been won. Someone has rightly said, “I’ve read the back of the Book and we win!”
Paul described some of the times of defeat in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9. “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; (9) Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” This sounds like an echo from the Psalms!
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. (24) Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his 
hand.” (Psalms 37:23-24)
While an NBA team may win a final, they won’t win ALL the finals. The Lakers have the most consecutive wins (8) and the most NBA Championships (18). Champs get dethroned or may never make it to the championship, much less, to the playoffs.
The child of God ultimately comes out the winner because GOD is the winner. A glorious day awaits each of us. To this, we should all be anxious to raise a hearty AMEN!
“And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. (25) And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. (26) And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. (27) And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:24-27)
1https://osupublicationarchives.osu.edu/?a=d&d=LTN19720111-01.2.50&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN——-
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