I know what failure looks like and it isn’t pretty, Like a bad impressionist’s version of an amoeba in a windstorm, when your best is not good enough, colors clash and the linear lines of order and form cannot be distinguished.

The question of why I lost or why I could not better my opponent has a single answer but this retort does nothing to clear the picture or lessen its nauseating impact.

I lost because my opponent was better than me.

Although I can rationalize my demise and attach it to a day, tomorrow may be no better and the answer does nothing but raise more questions, questions with hard answers. What do I need to do in order to beat my opponent? How can I get better? Why did I lose?

But the answers are not always obvious, attainable or comfortable, so the paint is applied in blotches and the only impression you’re left with is confusion.

Can you feel this? What are your impressions? Does it sound familiar?

The only way to get better is to acknowledge that you need to get better. Ignore your faults at your own peril, especially when they revolve around your competitiveness.

“The truth will set you free, indeed.”

The Phoenix Suns should not fear failure; they should fear confusion, amoebas and not acknowledging the truth.

Beware the man that does not allow you to see the real him. He is a mist floating before your face, drifting, changing…disappearing.