Listen up, you maggots. The other day the Sonics fired Paul Westphal because he was "too nice." In this dog-eat-dog world, you gotta show those pampered, overpaid prima donnas who's the boss. Make nice, and they'll make mincemeat out of you. You want hearts and flowers, or cups and trophies? Spare the rod and spoil the A-Rod. What was it that bad ol' Leo Durocher said? Nice guys finish last.

Nah. That voice doesn't ring true, and neither does the paleolithic notion that you have be some sort of hard-ass or taskmaster to be successful. Leo Durocher managed for 24 seasons and had exactly one world championship, whereas Joe Torre, everybody's idea of Mr. Nice Guy, has now won four World Series in the last five years.

Of course, Joe did have earlier frustrations with the Mets, Braves and Cardinals. But now that we've seen how the Yankees have responded to his fatherly touch, we can't go back and blame his previous failures on his niceness, any more than we can attribute the Sonics' disappointing performance to Westphal's demeanor. It's sometimes just a matter of circumstance. His fair and even hand didn't fit well with The Glove, and it couldn't pattycake the Baker man, but it seemed to work pretty damn well with the 1993 Suns.

Nice guys finish last? Hmmm. Let's see. There's Dick Vermeil, who won the Super Bowl, and Larry Robinson, who won the Stanley Cup, and Phil Jackson, who may not be everybody's idea of Mr. Nice Guy but who hasn't had to choke anyone in order to win seven of the last 10 NBA titles. Seven of the eight managers who got their teams into baseball's postseason quickly fall into the nice-guy category, and the eighth, Bobby Valentine, actually can be very friendly and considerate. The most successful coach of all time might have been the nicest: John Wooden.

The drill sergeants -- Bobby Knight, Billy Martin, Vince Lombardi -- are more the exception than the rule when it comes to winning. Browbeating and ass-kicking don't work nearly as well as mutual respect. Strict disciplinarians start with the assumption that their charges are idiots, and unless they are idiots, they resent the condescension. Nowadays, when a manager or coach asks a player to jump, he should expect to hear, "Why?" If he gives the right answer, then he's liable to hear, "How high?"

Athletes respond to niceness because, for the most part, they themselves are nice. Because of outlandish contract demands and the police-blotter news and the conspicious consumption, sports fans and writers labor under the assumption that today's athletes are spoiled brats. They're not. Niceness is a virtue shared by nearly every successful athlete. Think about it: If they're willing to give of themselves on the field -- which is really what winning is all about -- they're probably willing to give of themselves off the field.

I sent out a little office query, asking for the nice and successful, and the names came rolling in off the tops of staffers' heads, and are rolling in still: Jarrett Payton, Peyton Manning, Curtis Martin, Martin Brodeur, Brian Grant, Brian Cox, Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, Jeff Fischer, Tiki Barber, Derrick Brooks, Derek Jeter, George Brett, George Karl, Karl Malone, Doug Williams, Ricky Williams, Roy Williams, Lincoln Kennedy, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, David Cone, Matt Doherty, Gail Goestenkors, Tony Dungy, Ken Hitchcock, Dan Reeves, Al Leiter, Elton Brand, Mike Singletary, Steve Smith, Adam Graves, Luis Gonzalez, Allan Houston, Lennox Lewis, Kurt Warner, Marcus Camby, Sam Mills, Michael Strahan, Michelle Akers, Kevin Garnett, Cal Ripken, Steve Young, Stu Grimson, Donovan McNabb, Glen Rice, Rick Majerus, Joe Gibbs, Billy Wagner, Dexter Manley, Ron Harper, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Mike Piazza, Tony Gwynn, Lindsay Davenport, Patrick Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt, Todd Martin, Mookie Wilson, Willie Randolph, Ray Bourque, Brett Hull, Rod Brind'amour, Mike Modano, Brendan Shanahan, Sean Casey, Shaquille O'Neal, Pete Sampras, Mike Richter, Olaf Kolzig, Curtis Joseph, Jeremy Roenick, Dale Murphy, Shane Battier, Lenny Krayzelburg, Stacy Dragila, John Olerud... Wait, here come some more: Mike Sweeney, Andy Pettitte, Davis Love, Mariano Rivera, Luc Robitaille...

You get the point. Niceness is a strength, not a weakness. A few years ago, agent Ron Shapiro wrote a book called The Power of Nice, but to see niceness as a tactic is somewhat cynical. The real power of niceness is that it acts as the synapse between people. Get enough people connected to one another, and you have a team.

So don't fall for the notion that nice people are losers. If you do, you're liable to find yourself being helped up off the ground by one of them.

Steve Wulf is executive editor of ESPN The Magazine. E-mail steve.wulf@espnmag.com.