Is it unsportsmanship? Is it unethical? Is it against the rules? The probable outcome was known beforehand that this was a lopsided game. By holding back or whatever, you have potentially psychologically damaged both teams with some sort of arbitrary rule that is not in the book and only yields confusion to the object of the game. The losing team did not ask anyone to take up their cause in their behalf, so let the lesson be learned but the sport not be damaged.
So winning isn’t everything - you also have to beat the spread?
The point, surely, is that if these kids got together on a playground and played a pickup game, they would not naturally organize a game between two such lopsided teams, and they certainly would not continue the game until one side won by 100 points.So why should adults organize such a game?
“By holding back or whatever, you have potentially psychologically damaged both teams with some sort of arbitrary rule that is not in the book and only yields confusion “
You are joking right? Psychologically damage the team that holds back?
Guaranteed the members of the ‘winning’ team will never look back at this game with fondness for the next 50 years. They will feel only shame. They will regret the 100-0 score until the day they die.
There was absolutely no ‘thrill of victory’ for the winners nor was there ‘agony of defeat’ for the losers.
It probably became a joke to the losers long before the end. They couldn’t imagine the other team was pushing like they were. If I were on the losers side I would have scored baskets for the winning team just to make em happy.