Quotes from L. Jon Wertheim

Time and again, we let the fear of loss overpower rational decision-making and often make ourselves worse off just to avoid a potential loss. Psychologists call this loss aversion, and it means we often tend to prefer avoiding losses at the expense of acquiring gains.

As the late baseball manager Sparky Anderson put it: "Losing hurts twice as bad as winning feels good.

the pain of losing a dollar is far more powerful than the pleasure of winning a dollar.

Inside the opponent's 45-yard line, facing anything less than fourth and eight, teams are better off going for it than punting. Inside the opponent's 33-yard line, they are better off going for it on anything less than fourth and 11.* Regardless of field position, on anything less than fourth and five, teams are always better off going for it.

Here was Knight on Jordan that summer, long before MJ played his first NBA game: "The kid is just an absolutely great kid. If I were going to pick the three or four best athletes I've ever seen play basketball, he'd be one of 'em. I think he's the best athlete I've ever seen play basketball.

opportunity—trying

David," Magic Johnson said in the eighties, "has this unbelievable gift for seeing around the corner before anyone else.

They were missing teeth and spitting tobacco juice right on the floor—and you should have seen the men!

so often the appearance of lunacy in sports isn't lunacy at all. As outlandish as sports conduct might seem, it is rooted in basic human psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive tendency.