The wristband offers an array of ways to satisfy that need, from the intensely personal to the blatantly public, and that's what made it a champion of the good-will game.
Magic and Larry Bird crystallized the melting-pot nature of college basketball and then carried that good will into the pro game right when the National Basketball Association really needed it.
But there are also sportsmanship, respect and good will at these annual games, as if the players, the coaches, the students and the fans know they have been entrusted with something special.
Most of those trips were designed to promote international good will and interest in the game.
I always tell my authors, Don't bother writing to The New York Times Book Review; it's a mug's game, no good will come of it.
And just like that, the good will generated by the Vancouver Games was forgotten.
But a fistfight at an American-versus-Chinese good-will basketball game at night cast a shadow on the day's diplomacy.
I've done Leslie Phillips so I'll do Bruce Forsyth: "Good game, good game…" Double fault.
"A good game will have the expected progression at the end of each level, but it will also provide surprise rewards halfway through," says Ben Weedon, a consultant at PlayableGames, a company that carries out usability testing on new titles before they're released.
"You'll have good games and bad games.
The question is no longer whether the 2004 Olympics will be in Athens, local and international officials said, but how good the Games will be.
