John Murphy explores the line between gamesmanship and cheating in sports, asking whether a LeBron-style flop that wins the game counts as fair play. He argues athletes make better employees because they're coachable and competitive, and that companies now use gamified hiring to attract Gen Z and millennials.
Well, The Champions Code, it's about winning with integrity. It's based on 2 series of books I wrote about why winning teams win and about that fine line between cheating and gamesmanship in sports. We're all tempted to find shortcuts. And we know in football and every sport, there's what's cheating, what's gamesmanship. It's the flop. It's the dive. It's steroids if you can get away with it. It's right. There's always that edge you're willing to go beyond. You know, if LeBron can sell that flop and they win by 1 point in overtime, was that gamesmanship? Or was he cheating? It's really a—it's really an ethical conundrum. So I talk a lot about integrity and doing the right thing even when no one's looking. And that's really the kind of the hallmark of my speaking is and writing is just trying to celebrate the good—the good stuff, right? The men and women who do good. And a lot of companies I work with—they—they love hiring athletes, right? They're coachable. They're great listeners. They want to win. They're competitive. They—they can take constructive criticism. They—everything is gamified, especially. Especially dealing with Gen Z and millennials trying to acquire and retain talent today.
