Michael Jordan tried out for his high school basketball team and was cut because he was too short. From that point on, Michael Jordan set out to prove that he would be the best NBA player to ever play the game of basketball. Michael Jordan was born in 1963 in New York. His family moved to North Carolina when he as a toddler. Michael Jordan went on to attend college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was an all-star player.
Now we can add Michael Jordan name to the list of players I just named. Jordan is being inducted into the Hall of Fame today due to his great basketball skills on the court and all of the things he accomplished in fifteen seasons in the NBA. As a child Jordan basketball career had some ups and downs. According to ESPN, “during his sophomore year at Laney, a 5’9 Michael Jordan tried out for the basketball team. He was passed over for the final spot on the varsity team.” He took that as motivation and dominated on the junior varsity team.
In 1991, the Fab Five of Michigan University men’s basketball team impacted America’s traditions and morals. These five young, outspoken, rash African Americans not only stormed the court, but the media too. Making Americans question all that they knew, the Fab Five’s “us against the world” attitude and controversial decisions revolutionized basketball, for better or for worse, all while leaving behind a legacy of family and love. Coming off a championship season in 1989, the Michigan Wolverines acquired what is coined to be the best recruiting class in college history. In 1991, Michigan signed five of the nation’s top fifty high school recruits, and thus began the Fab Five era.
With five seniors graduating, many critics expected an immediate decline in Duke's basketball winnings, but Krzyzewski's 1987 Devils won 24 games and made it to the Sweet 16, losing to Indiana, who went on to win the national championship. From 1988 to 1992, he led his team to the Final Four, five consecutive seasons. UCLA's legendary John Wooden is the only other coach in the history of the tournament to accomplish such greatness. "Leadership is getting people to buy into something, making them feel vested in the whole decision-making process," said Grant Hill, an All-American who helped Duke to two national titles. "Coach K is remarkable at doing that."
Collins was drafted and hired for the same reason, to restore the winning tradition of the franchise. Collins was a very successful player for the 76ers, but due to injuries was forced to retire the summer before the title won in 1983. Collins is considered one of the best coaches, however there are certain aspects of his coaching style I disagree with. For example, Jrue Holiday should not have been named the point guard because the position doesn’t fit his capabilities. He wants to be known for making the big plays, instead of distributing the basketball to his teammates.
He had scored 48 points in a game. He had looked forward to going to Sexton high school a school where basketball was doing very successful in basketball and was like five blocks from his house. His plans did not go he didn’t go to Sexton that was an all-black-school. He instead went to a school that his sister Pearl and his Brother Larry went to that they did not have a pleasant time with. Everett that was an all-white school that had racism like some people threw rocks at the bus when black kids where in it.
Kobe was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and lived in the upper class suburbs on the outskirts of Philadelphia. His father was an NBA player himself for a couple of years until Kobe and his family moved to Italy so that his father could play professional basketball there. Kobe lived in Italy for a number of years until his family moved back to Philadelphia after Kobe’s’ father retired from the game of basketball. Unlike Jordan, Kobe was an instant starter as a freshman for his high school team and ended up winning a State Championship his senior year. Kobe was so good that he decided not to go to college and instead went straight to the NBA after his final year of high school.
Many believed that people graduating from high school were still kids and were too young to be thrown into such a “grown up” and high profile situation. Few believed he would succeed and felt players “should be required to grow and develop in college the years after they graduate high school to allow them to grow and develop both physically and mentally” (Hilton). This marks the first significant event in the transformation of Kobe Bryant’s public identity in a negative way, and the beginning of Bryant’s path to perseverance. Skip to four years later and to the first NBA championship for Bryant, who was now an all-star, and the Lakers alongside Shaquille O’Neal which silenced any doubt about Bryant’s maturity or work ethic due to his age, changing his public image to a superstar. He now had all the sponsors and fame chasing him along with all the money that comes with it.
Tough Night: Michael Beasley The second overall pick in the NBA Draft, by far had the worst game of his young career. Zero points in 13 minutes of play. He did not start for the 1st time in his career, had only 2 steals, and 5 rebounds.. Beasley is learning that the NBA game is not the same game he played at Kansas State. Here in the pros Mike, the players deserve to be in it, in college not all players on the court deserve to be on it. I’m sure that Beasley is going to shake this game off and come back to the starting rotation tomorrow.
A seventeen year old, just made the winning goals for his basketball team. As his team members picked him up and carried him around on their shoulders, there was disbelief from the crowd but triumph smeared across the seventeen-year-old boy’s face. Jason McElwain has had autism since he was a young boy, possessing all of the signs including speech impairment by not being able to talk till he was five years old. Jason was the manager on his High School basketball team, consisting of filling up water for his teammates and sitting on the bench watching this favorite sport pass by him. His coach Jim Johnson told him to play near the end of a game giving him an opportunity he hasn’t been able to uphold.