Money Makers

As time goes on, sports become a more and more popular way of making money. Americans are starting to find the “easy way out” instead of working hard for success. However, in sports, it is becoming such an importance to create the next superstar. Parents start getting their kids involved in sports at such young ages nowadays, and they enforce to their kids that sports are essential to their success. They will try and make their kid the best they can possibly be and sometimes kids don’t necessarily want to make sports their career. Coaches in youth leagues get kicked out of games because they flip out during the course of the game due to a bad call or mistakes made by their players. Like I mention in another post, there was a coach that actually hit a player during a rebounding drill. What message does that send to that kids teammates? It states that if they don't perform well, then they will pay the consequences. That being violence.

Different Salaries and Performance

Teams in the NBA that have more black players, have better records and salaries of those teams that have more white players. This could never be said in the earlier 1900’s when whites dominated the NBA and at the collegiate level. Eighty two percent of the players in the NBA are of color taken from a survey of the 2010 season. I think that this shows how far the league has come and that color no longer means anything when it comes to sports or anything for that matter. People finally start to realize that the only difference between us is the color of our skin. It is amazing to me that there are still whites, blacks, Latinos and other ethnicities that show hatred toward one another. If sports can make it work, we all could make it work. There are still whites in the south that hate blacks to this very day. Sports has made a huge impact on racism and it can only get better. In sports, blacks will always be accepted and it has helped greatly in every day life. There are many people, however, who think that America is still a very racist country. "As of 2005, 4,000 families were relocated to voucher housing and 15,000 public-housing units were demolished..." (Academic Search Complete). This article written by Deirdre Oakley and Keri Burchfield talked about the amount of people that are forced to relocate their homes to a different property every year. Most of these people are African Americans and that goes to show that African Americans still have it very rough in the United States. A lot of these urban communities which contain a large amount of African Americans don't have a lot of good job oppurtunities. Therefore, these African Americans are somewhat forced to go to the streets and play basketball, and become pros at it.

Bill Russell

Bill Russell was the first ever African-American coach in the NBA. I think that this set the precedent for the many years to come that not only do black players play the game, but they also coach the game as well. Blacks are just as capable of doing things as whites do and it took until 1966 for people to realize it and hire a black coach. Racism was still a part of the game, however, and it wasn’t all easy for Russell. Bill Russell was a five time NBA most valuable player and he was a twelve time all star (nba.com). He changed the sport's defensive tactics with his amazing ability to block the opposing teams shots. Bill Russell won eleven championships with the Boston Celtics over thirteen year time period. In seeing this, other teams and other coaches wanted to pay players to perform like Russell. He was so superior than other players in the NBA during the 1960's. Others coaches realized that they want to win as much as Russell did. 

In my opinion, the more and more talent that the NBA found, the more and more black players started being look at. In the video, it shows Bill Russell's career as a Boston Celtic. He changed the game defensively, and he knew how to win. Winning was an essential part to the rise of equality in race in the NBA.

Brittney Griner

Britteny Griner of Baylor University punched an opposition’s player during a collegiate basketball game. I think this is just an amazing display of no self-control whatsoever.

Brittney Griner of Baylor University punches forward on opposing team.

Young women basketball players are exposed to this malicious behavior and it could affect the way they act. Young women who saw this could be altered into believing that it is okay to punch people if something doesn’t go their way.

This event sets a horrible example for the kids watching and the NCAA itself. In current times, the NCAA is recruiting talent and they will do anything that they can in order to obtain a certain individual. These individuals may have the right talent, but they don't necessarily have the right character. Sports should be played with a great deal of respect and a lot of NCAA players, either women or men do not show this kind of respect that the game deserves. This also occurs in the NBA. There is a great deal of a lack of sportsmanship in the NBA. A lot of players are known as "punks" and they get arrested. Are these the kind of role models that we want our kids getting attached to?

 

Coach HIts Player

 

At Holy Family University in Philadelphia, a coach by the name of John O’Connor hit a player during a rebounding drill whose name was Matt Kravchuk. Is this what sports has come to? Violence should have nothing at all to do with any sport unless the sport requires it. For a coach to hit a player on his/her team is just downright awful and he should be ashamed of himself. I think that the sporting world will only get worse from there to be honest. With sports becoming more and more serious each year, there is more seriousness involoved. Basketball is a business with a lot of money involved, and it could force people over their breaking point. It can cause high stress levels with coaches and players themselves.The video shows the coach hitting the player to the ground and all of the other players don't do anything about it. What message does this implant in the minds of the other kids on the team? It tells them that it is okay to get that mad, because they are taught to listen to their coach and do what he says. If they don't perform to his standards then they will be punished physically, and that is not good.

The New NBA

The new game of basketball consists of mainly black players now. The league (NBA) has changed dramatically and now a very large majority of the league is black. There are still white players, European players and all different kinds of players. The thing is though; nowadays no one is discriminated against. The people who are better at basketball, play in the game. Today’s world doesn’t have much racial hatred anymore. Of course, some people in this world are always going to be racist towards another group of people. Some black people will hate white people and vice versa. In the NBA now we have Turkish players, Chinese players, and I think I is great to see the worlds best athletes coming together to form one good league. The best of the best playing for a championship is what the game of basketball should be all about. Why should it matter what race you are? I think that the NBA is a perfect example of how the entire world should be. No one is looked down upon in the NBA, and that is what the world should be like. The NBA shows a perspective of racism through sport. It shows how you can be any race in order to play. You just have to have the skill. If you have the skill, you will be equal. So why do people still commit hate crimes and think so bad of others that aren't the same race as them? It will never be known, but what is known is that the NBA is doing the right thing in creating an environment of equality.

Forced Play

If you were to walk around and look at the different people around you, most of them have participated in some sort of sport in their life. But what we need to do is look at the middle school kids and elementary school kids who are being forced (to an extent) to play sports. Everyone wants his or her kid to be the next star, the next big thing. Ultimately, they want their kids to be successful. But sports aren’t the only way to be successful. Parents must learn this or else kids growing up are going to think that the only way they have a shot in this cruel and unfair world is to play sports. Don’t get me wrong, sports are fun and exciting but what this country especially needs is brains. We need college graduates, not a bunch of athletes. We will always have plenty of those. Kids need to be getting an education because our country, with its recent recession, can use some smart people to turn this country in the right direction.

First Black Player in the NBA

In the 1950-1951 NBA (National Basketball Association) the first black player was signed to a team. It was another turning point in the advancement of the game of basketball. It was another step in making race not a factor. Chuck Cooper became the first black player to be drafted by an NBA team, and Nat Clifton was the first black player to sign an NBA contract. Earl Lloyd was the first black player to play in a regular season game because his team’s opener was before the others. The picture shows Nat Clifton when he played for the New York Knicks.

The Team That Changed the Game

The most important college basketball game of all time was played by the University of Texas at El Paso and the Kentucky Wildcats. Coach Don Haskins (UTEP) started five black players in the 1966 NCAA title game. This was a time where the South did not play black players at all. The only black players you would see playing were in the North and there was still not that many. Don Haskins recruited talent, not color and that is why the sport has changed so much over the years. People started to realize how influential the African-American race can be to the sport of basketball. They had the speed, the athleticism and strength to play the game. More and more blacks started to be recruited by different colleges, and not soon after, the game became a non-racist community. The Kentucky Wildcats, coached by Adolf Rupp were an all white team and were the favorites to win the game.

The video is the ending to the movie "Glory Road" and it shows the team of five black players winning the championship. They were the underdogs going into the game and everyone was shocked when they had beaten the Wildcats. Adolf Rupp couldn't believe that his team had lost. The movie was all about the 1966 UTEP basketball team and how their season changed basketball forever. Don Haskins was the main influential person in all of this because he did the recruiting. He wanted talent, not color.

Introduction of The Sport

The sport of basketball was introduced to the world in the Berlin Olympics in 1936, when race mattered, and people that played sports were usually Caucasians, in America. Born in Canada, Dr. James Naismith founded the sport in 1891 and came up with a set of rules that the sport shall follow.

Blacks were looked down upon, treated like dirt and inferior to the typical white American race. As you see in the picture, the team was all white. Blacks were not known for athletic ability or looked upon as equal. It astonishes me the fact that this is how people once acted. How a matter of color separated athletes from the lower class. The sport of basketball now can be seen as a utopia, however, because there is no inequalities like there was back when basketball began.