It’s trite expression, we know. But woe to those who forget. There’s no “I” in team.

Anyone whose been part of a successful team — the variety sport doesn’t matter — knows that the collective needs take precedence over the needs of any individual.

Each player must know his position, and play it. Every soldier has orders and is expected to follow them.

The playbook, the game plan, the classified documents are to be guarded at all costs. Freelancing isn’t tolerated. It’s akin to treason.

And this “taking a knee” business — how would that have played in 1946, when professional baseball players returned from World War II; or in 1947, when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke the color barrier? Not a chance.

Bowe Bergdahl knows nothing about teamwork. Bergdahl is a take-a-knee guy.

He pleaded guilty Monday to desertion and endangering his Army comrades. The charges could put him behind bars for the rest of his life — where he rightfully belongs. He admitted he walked away from his post in Afghanistan, abandoning his Army unit in 2009. He was captured and held hostage by the Taliban for five years.

There was no plea deal. “I understand that leaving was against the law,” he said Monday, probably hoping his candor will inspire sympathy in the military judge who sentences him later this month.

Let’s hope the judge considers other factors, including these facts:

- Bergdahl walked away from his remote post in 2009.

- His actions prompted an intensive search during which some of his comrades were seriously wounded. A Navy SEAL suffered a career-ending leg wound and an Army National Guard sergeant suffered a head wound that put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

- President Barack Obama swapped five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl’s release. Qatar facilitated the exchange. The enduring U.S. policy has been never to negotiate with terrorists. It’s not good for the team.

- Bergdahl was promoted to the rank of sergeant. All missing-in-action soldiers qualify for the promotion.

- Republicans roundly criticized Obama, and Donald Trump went further while campaigning for president, repeatedly calling Bergdahl a “dirty, rotten traitor” who deserved to be executed by firing squad or thrown out of a plane without a parachute.

- Earlier this year, Bergdahl’s defense team was rebuffed in its effort to prove Trump had unfairly swayed the case. The judge ruled in February that the new president’s comments were “disturbing and disappointing” but did not constitute unlawful influence.