Finish last in your league and they call you Idiot. Finish last in medical school and they call you Doctor.

Lemons’ quip plays on the difference between relative and absolute standards of achievement. In competitive sports, finishing last is a public failure because ranking is the whole point; the label “idiot” reflects the harshness of zero-sum comparison. In medicine, by contrast, the threshold is credentialing: once you meet the minimum requirements and graduate, you receive the socially powerful title “Doctor” regardless of class rank. The joke highlights how status can attach to institutional certification even when performance is mediocre, and it gently punctures the assumption that prestigious titles always signal excellence. It also reflects a coach’s world, where outcomes are relentlessly measured and publicly judged.