Becoming a Professional Basketball Player As a child, I loved to imitate NBA greats like Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and David Thompson. Growing up in town that was rich with basketball tradition, I knew that I wanted to make it to the NBA and become a star. Not knowing if I had what it takes to make it to that level, I began my quest at an early age. Becoming a professional basketball player is extremely difficult for some, but for others it just seems to fall in their laps (eHow). My first experience playing organized basketball began when I was in the fifth grade on an after school program in the old armory.
The narrative of my life begins with my parents and siblings. According to the textbook, “You are a product of the way you were raised”. My parents divorced and remarried to another person when I was four and five years old. I am the second oldest out of seven children and I have taken the role of caretaker very seriously. I developed a determination to not divorce my husband when I one day decided to marry.
My first practice finally arrived, and I made my practice plan out, but I wanted to think about what I was going to say to the young eleven year olds. I kept thinking for over an hour and I couldn’t think of the right thing, but finally I figured out the perfect speech. I remember exactly what I said I told the kids that 5th grade basketball is about getting better so you can play at the high school level. I told them it has nothing to do with winning, of course everyone likes to win, that’s not the most important part. Never focus on the winning aspect of the game; focus on making yourself the best player you can be, and the wins will come.
Over that summer I saw myself improve as a player. It also helped that I grew 2 inches over that summer as well, but at the end of it all I thought I was ready for the shot at playing real basketball. When I arrived at the high school for the first day of school I felt like I was in the land of giants even at me standing at 6 foot 2 and a half inches tall. After a few weeks of settling in the fall workouts were starting for basketball and I was excited to go. When I got there it became a different story entirely.
Punishment to this team is not playing basketball which is something they love doing and is an opportunity for many of the students to even go to college. The consequence of their behavior is the result of the punishment they will have for not performing well in school to be a part of this basketball team and as a consequence it will result as a punishment. Coach carter also used the theory of Shaping with his team by teaching the students to do something that they did not do usually. These students were used to cutting classes and fail and still be able to play sports. However, the coach would not allowed his team to perform poorly academically and still play basketball.
Obviously Coach Carter cared enough about his players to realize that academics are more important than playing a sport. The parents of the players are all upset with Coach Carter because they believe that basketball is the only thing that is keeping their sons off the street and out of trouble. Later in the season, Coach Carter finds out that the players on the team have been slipping in their grades and he decides to suspend the games and lock up the gym. He watched over them as God would and made sure that they would make the right decisions in life, such as choosing education before athletics. He made them understand that basketball wasn’t going to get them through life, but having a good education would.
Sherman Alexie has brought himself into his writing by including some of his personal experience in this young adult novel. In the novel, a underlining plot in the story is Junior’s run through his freshman basketball season on the Varsity team at Reardan High School. He makes varsity after an intense battle with the teams best player, Roger. Even though he is the best shooter on the team, Junior felt he wouldn’t get a lot of playing time, which at first he doesn’t, but then he becomes the teams spark plug, their 6th man, averaging 12 points off the bench. When came time to play his former school, Wellpinit, he started his first game.
Declan Fay Real Role Models In his article “Derrick Rose is no role model” author Mark Yost makes the claim that NBA superstar Derrick Rose should not be a role model in today’s society for a number of reasons. His three main arguments against idolizing Rose are that it gives children a false promise that they can grow up to be like him, it hints that they should sacrifice academics for athletic achievements, and that since Rose is a cheated and was not punished for his actions, children may be able to do as he did and not suffer any repercussions. With the current lack of moral values in society today, it is hard to see how one cannot be in strong agreement with Yost’s idea that Rose should not be venerated. While many professional athletes have reached an almost superhero status in Western culture, we need to reassess our values as a country, placing ‘role model’ status only on those truly worthy of such a title. The first main argument provided by Yost is the false promise that comes from idolizing someone like Derrick Rose, especially to those in economically challenged neighborhoods like Englewood, Chicago, where Rose comes from.
Knowledge Learned From Basketball "Not only is there more to life than basketball, there's a lot more to basketball than basketball", said by Coach Phil Jackson. Throughout my 19 years of living I have learned some very valuable knowledge. While school, media, family and friends have taught me much of this information, I’ve absorbed some of the most important life lessons from the sport of basketball. Growing up, my first toy was a basketball and hoop. From that day on, I have played basketball.
Not surprisingly, Bryant was offered scholarships to almost every major college and university in the country. Not only was he a brilliant basketball player, he was also a good student, scoring an above-average 1,100 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test. Bryant and his parents remained coy about his future, however. They realized that they faced a momentous decision: whether to bypass college completely and go straight into the NBA draft. Vanessa met Kobe Bryant in November 1999.