After the Mavericks beat the Heat, the two most popular sports in America (football and basketball) may disappear for a long time. Ray Lewis warned white America that this could result in more crime. This is not a threat. Rabid fans will have nothing to channel their reservoir of aggression with. People need a release (look what happened in Vancouver on Wednesday). In fact, sports may be the very fabric that keeps society together. Of course, the NFL and NBA strike may tear this fabric apart. Welcome back to “The 33 Strategies of War” by Robert Greene as seen through the eyes of sports. This week…

THE CONTROLLED CHAOS STRATEGY

Corporations have conspired to destroy freshness and purity from everything. Look what happened to movies. I have a tremendous threshold for bad films. Some of my favorite memories are of sitting in a theatre, watching something god-awful. But movies today are not even bad. Like our food, they just taste like food. Movies only look like movies (exceptions like “Black Swan”, “Inception” and “Enter the Void” are few and far between). So, what is missing from food and movies?

This missing link can be found in sports. Because, no matter how much manufacturing occurs in their organizations, athletes must do battle. Movie studios can toss money at their problems. By the time the audience realizes they paid $15-20 to watch shit stains dripping from a movie screen, it’s already done $200 million up our collective asses. In sports, the bigger the stage, the less money can help you. Like many, I could not have predicated the Mavericks would win the title this year. But they did.

The missing element is “unpredictability”. Ratings for sports has skyrocketed because — like life, sports is unpredictable, and people recognize that. Whereas food and movies are predictable.

Since unpredictability is so common in sports, an athlete’s greatest friend are speed and adaptability. If you think fast and find ways to adapt to any situation, not much can stop you.

SEGMENT YOUR FORCES

In 1999, Venus Williams ranked #3 in the world in women’s tennis. She was 19 and had done very well — but she still had not won a Singles Grand Slam. Whereas Martina Hingis, her greatest nemesis, had been the youngest Grand Slam Champion in tennis history (she took Wimbledon in 1996 at 15 — and now ranked #1). There was a lot of talk of racism. After all, tennis is a predominantly white sport. It has been historically difficult for a non-white athlete to break through especially with country club sports like tennis or golf — as was the case with Tiger Woods. But the truth might have been, Williams’ game was too raw and undisciplined to survive the heady chess match of pro tennis. After all, Venus had turned pro for 5 years now and always collapsed at the hands of either Hingis or Lindsey Davenport — smarter, more clever players who actually agreed to prevent Venus and her younger sister, Serena, from winning titles.

The tennis world had written a lot of articles about Venus and Serena — but the way Hingis and Davenport saw it, the Williams Sisters were simply entertainment. They had a powerful serve. But when the whole world was watching, when the game became “strategic”, they were not smart enough to win — and so far, Hingis and Davenport were right.

On September 10, 1999, Venus would face Hingis in the US Open Semi-Finals (Martina had defeated Venus 6 times). Martina dominated the first set, 6-1, humiliating Venus… but Venus won the second set, 6-4 to tie. Perhaps there was more to her game than a powerful serve? Hingis disagreed and imposed her will, forcing her sloppy opponent into numerous errors, taking the second match 6-3. Once more, Venus was dispatched by the #1.

Now, Hingis would face the younger sister, Serena, in the finals. Serena was ranked #8 and played the same style. Powerful serves. Brute strength. Nothing more. By the middle of the match, Serena would get tired and Martina could match her strength. Here, Hingis would impose her will again and take the trophy and $750,000 prize money.

But something bizarre occurred. Serena did not get exhausted. She delivered powerful serve after powerful serve. Pounding Hingis like a piece of meat on a hook. And before Martina knew it, Serena had downed her into a first match defeat, 6-3.

The tension in Arthur Ashe Stadium was fog-like. Here was the world’s #1, the pride of the white tennis world, sweating, looking scared, and down one set to a Williams sister, a black woman (not since 1958 has a black woman won a Grand Slam — one, Althea Gibson, the “Jackie Robinson of tennis”). The purity of the game was at stake. Hingis focused, dueling Serena with everything she had. She screamed louder on each swing, each yell more girlish, more helpless — as if Serena was violating her. Hingis was out of breath. Her legs, wobbly. Was that tears or sweat covering her face? The #1 gave it everything she had. And lost 7-6 in one of the greatest tennis matches of all time.

INTERPRETATION

Martina Hingis might have won more than 5 Grand Slams and even become one of the greatest, had it not been for the dam that broke on the night of September 12, 1999…the date the Williams Sisters began their reign of terror on the great white world of Women’s Tennis. The sport had been dominated by teenage girls in country clubs for as long as it existed. Martina Navratilova, Christ Evert and Monica Seles brought a toughness, but their era had ended and was now threatened by the graceful prissiness of Martina Hingis-types, like Anna Kornikova (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen her on Maxim, but I can tell you how many Singles Grand Slam she’s won. Zero.)

When Serena defeated Hingis, it would be the dress rehearsal for women’s tennis for the next ten years and beyond. Hingis could defeat one sister — but not both. Together, the Williams Sisters were too powerful for any opponent. If you fought one sister, you would be too tired and sore to defeat the next.

“Those serves were, like, smacking,” Hingis said after her defeat. Davenport, Stefi Graff, Kim Clijsters, Kornikova. Most of them had no chance against both Williams Sisters. Venus won 21 Grand Slams. Serena 27. Injury has slowed them down over the years, but at the top of their game, during 2000-03, it was pure domination. Along with Tiger Woods, they entered a sport with almost no black athletes and took it over.

Their father and outspoken coach, Richard Williams, is a tennis lover and in fact attempted to train all five daughters into tennis pros — but only the two youngest showed the gifts. Two was enough. The girls could barely walk when Richard taught his daughters every facet of tennis. A powerful serve. Forehand. Backhand. Drive volleys. Overhead volleys. And even the rarely used drop volleys. Today, the sisters frequently entangle their opponents into brutal volleys that seem to last forever — like a black widow wrapping web on her prey, before biting its head off. Venus has the fastest serve in women’s tennis history (130 mph) and Serena the second (129 mph). Richard armed his daughters with every weapon imaginable, but the greatest weapon he gave them was the ability to play, like Transformers, separate and together. He knew their greatest enemy would not be their opponents — but the white status quo.

This monster reared its ugly head many times, but most notably in India Wells, California in 2001. The sisters were to play against each other in a semi-finals when Venus forfeited at the last minute (from knee tendinitis), allowing Serena to advance. The audience did not like this. When Serena faced Clijsters in the finals, the audience turned into an angry, racist mob. I can’t really repeat what they called her, but one person threatened to skin Serena alive. When Serena beat Clijsters in one of the great comebacks in tennis history, she held up her trophy and turned the angry mob into a volcano and had to be escorted out. The sisters have not returned to India Wells since.

They’ve instead chosen to dominate the greatest stage of the tennis world. Wimbledon. The Sisters from Compton have made it their mission in life to own one of the most stuck up, white only places on Earth for the last decade, rubbing it in the face of their enemy.

KEYS TO ENGAGEMENT

As Mr. Greene says, “the essence of strategy is not to carry out a brilliant plan that precedes in steps. It is to put yourself in situations where you have more options than the enemy does. Instead of grasping at option A as the single right answer, true strategy is positioning yourself to be able to do A, B or C, depending on the circumstances. That is strategic depth of thinking, as opposed to formulaic thinking”.

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle used this very tactic to defeat the Heat. His starting five were Nowitizki, Kidd, Marion, Stevenson and Chandler, but he was able to mix and match combinations that always worked together. After the Heat went up 2-1, Carlisle started Barea instead of Stevenson. This was not a demotion. Barea could help the Mavericks from giving up early leads with his scoring punch. Stevenson would come off the bench to relieve Marion from defending LeBron. And by the end of games, when defense was absolutely needed, Carlisle inserted both Stevenson and Marion to defend James and Wade, limiting the Heat’s scoring punch. His team was flexible, fluid and mobile.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was forced to use Pat Riley’s moldy playbook. And his starting five was inflexible. Erik could not bring James, Wade or Bosh off the bench (but imagine if he could?). LeBron will be blamed for chocking in the face of adversity — but he was limited by having only option A. Whereas the Mavs had option A, B, C, D, E and so on. The Heat had no flexibility in their game plan. They were too formulaic and rigid. By the time they started Mario Chalmers and implemented Eddie House from the bench, it was too late.

Any combination worked for Mavericks. Five was one. No matter which five were on the court. Whereas the Heat were exposed as a broken, confused team with no hand-eye coordination. As Sun-Tzu wrote, “the army moves for advantage, and changes through segmenting and reuniting. Thus its speed is like the wind”. He called this “Chi”, or “a position of potential force”.

This is why it is better to bring fluidity and flexibility to your group, as opposed to rigidly controlling every facet. Bottle up chaos and disorder like lightning and use its unpredictability to gain an advantage — its magic is frightening but very powerful, if you have trust in it. People that ride horses say the horse reacts based on how comfortable you are. The more secure you are of the unknown, the more control you truly have. Richard Williams trusts his daughter’s individualities, even encouraging them to dress how they want. Freedom within their chaos is evident.

Perhaps, Serena or Venus could have made a major dent alone, but working in separate forces that can glue together when needed has made them the greatest sibling sports dynasty ever created.

Meanwhile, Martina Hingis retired in 2007 after testing positive for cocaine. She never won another Grand Slam Single after Serena “smacked” her that night — despite openly swearing revenge.

REVERSAL

There are times you have to give your team less freedom. Sometimes, as Tom Coughlin demonstrated when he led Giants to a Superbowl, it is better to be dictatorial. The point is, maintain fluidity in your own leadership, depending on the circumstances.