For individual sports such as tennis and golf, you are responsible for determining your goals and objectives, and you don’t have to be accountable to other people. In contrast, when you play a team sport you must give up some of your personal goals for the good of the team. Collective goals require athletes to sacrifice some of their personal objectives in order for the team to succeed. For example, Steve Nash (professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks) is a good shooter who regularly passes the ball to Dirk Nowitzki instead of shooting the ball by himself, because Dirk is a great shooter. If Steve can get the ball to Dirk in good shooting positions, the Mavericks have a better chance of winning. Winning is more important to Steve than his individual goal of scoring points. Steve Nash is a great team player who understands team goals. Katie Smith of the WNBA team the Minnesota Lynx is another great team player that puts her personal goals aside for the benefit of her lady Lynx.
