Dharius Daniels - Fix Your Fundamentals

I want you to join me in the book of Hosea, Hosea chapter four, verse six. I’m going to read one verse, and we’re going to leap into this lesson today. I promise you, I’m excited about it. And you know I have to rep the home team, Philly. Yes! I hope we’re going to make some noise in this bubble. For those of you who know me, if you’ve been rocking with me for a long time, I’m a real Philly fan, right? I’m a real Philly fan! I’m talking about when we had Andrew Bynum, Philly. I’m talking about right after AI left. But anyway, I’m believing God for great things in the playoffs. You know, Hosea chapter 4, verse 6 says this: «My people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge. Listen to this: because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priest. Because you’ve ignored the law of God, I will also ignore your children.» I want to take this particular passage and parlay it into a principle about love and basketball. I want to talk about fixing your fundamentals. If you’re ready for the word, just type «I’m ready» in the chat; drop it right there: I’m ready.

Family, as I was reflecting on this series, Love in Basketball, I recalled an experience I had growing up prior to my teenage years. I was spending the summer in Kapelle, Texas, with my Uncle Steve and my two cousins, Robert and Walter. During my time in Texas that summer, I got word that one of my favorite NBA players at the time, named Larry Johnson—if you’re a millennial, Google him; you might not be old enough—was hosting a basketball camp at Lincoln High School in Dallas, Texas. So my cousin and I went to my Uncle Steve and said, «Listen, you have to get us into this camp! LJ, Grandmama has to see me do what I do. I gotta show off my skills! He’s got to see my unique ability! I need to represent one time from the M.I., crooked letter, crooked letter, I, humpback, humpback, I. I gotta represent from Mississippi, and I have to let these Texas boys know how these Mississippi boys roll.»

My uncle pulled some strings and got us into the camp. I was ready! I was enthusiastic, overwhelmed, and excited. Listen to me—I was looking forward to demonstrating my ability, hoping to get some affirmation and acknowledgment from Larry Johnson, Grandmama. I was expecting scrimmages, tournaments, and games, but when I got to the camp, you know what we did the whole first day? Drills: dribble with the right hand, dribble with the left hand, dribble with the right hand, dribble with the left hand, pivot, stop, jump, figure eight, suicides. As I half-heartedly engaged in this activity, one of the coaches in my division noticed my obvious frustration and came over to me. He said, «Man, what’s wrong with you?» I said, «Man, I’m ready to play!» He replied, «I don’t need all of these drills. What’s wrong with you young boys? You want to play the game before you learn it.»

Y’all missed what I just said! He said, «That’s what’s wrong with you young boys; you want to play the game before you learn it.» Now, I wish you could have seen me. I had my socks matching my shoes, my shirt matching my shorts. I had my wristband on my forearm. I was ready; I was looking good! I was attempting to play the part. Watch this! But he said something that I think is so important and essential. He said, «You young boys want to play the game before you learn it.» Sure enough, later in the camp, there was an opportunity to play some games, and when I tell you those Texas boys beat the brakes off me, they beat the brakes off me! They were stealing the ball, blocking shots, and crossing me up. Then the same coach came over a little later in the week and said, «You know what? You wouldn’t have gotten exposed if you had taken the drills seriously.» Watch this! That’s what he said to me: «You’ve got talent, and you can be good, but you need to fix—come here—your fundamentals.»

Not only is this the case in the game of basketball—watch this! I believe this is also the case in the game of love. It’s possible to play the game of love, be on the court of relationships, looking good, driving good, living good, taking good pictures, making good Facebook and Instagram posts, but not doing good. Why? Because of the absence of fundamentals. Why is it that relationships are the only place where we expect to know how to play the game before we learn the game? The absence of fundamentals—and this is uniquely the case, y’all, in a Christian context. Because Christians are interesting—I’m a Christian; I love Christians—but in many cases, people assume that their spiritual intelligence and their relational intelligence are the same thing. It’s possible—watch this! —to use our tongues to pray heaven down and use that same tongue to tear our partner down because our anointing has nothing to do with our ability to relate well. See, love and basketball aren’t just about—listen to me—having faith; it’s about knowing the fundamentals. I think this is the issue Hosea is trying to address in this text: he’s trying to get people to…