Honor on St. Crispin's Day

It's too bad Shakespeare wasn't around to write something suitable about the game in Orlando on Xmas Day. (After all, he would be a Celtics fan if he was still among us.) We'll have to settle for Henry V's immortal speech.

"If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Kevin Garnett, Rondo and Perkins,
Allen, Wallace, House and Scalabrini,-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

Okay, so maybe not having Pierce, and KG playing hurt, weren't equivalent to the odds the real Henry faced at Agincourt, still for one who "covets honour", it was a lovely example of how to go about getting it.

Like the battle of Agincourt, it was a clash of opposite values. In Henry's day, it was a case of lances against armor-piercing arrows, chivalry versus opportunism. In the Celtics - Orlando matchup, it was individual one-on-one play against team, selfishness versus sharing.

Honor. I'm not sure why we never hear that word used today. But one can still recognize it when some person or group brings it to themselves.

Spike,

If only you were literate!

Sam