Basketball: Agression vs Passion

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35737127 Aggression and Passion in Basketball Basketball is a team sport with five individual team players, who each work together to reach a common goal of outscoring, playing better defense and overall beating the opponent. It is also a contact sport, and in competition, players can often result in being overly aggressive, especially during the highly critical moments of the game. Moments such as, when the game is tied but the amount of time remaining on the game clock is running out, and whoever outplays their opponent either in offense, defense, or both ends up victorious. Those moments are commonly referred to as moments of passion, or moments when the team with the “most passion” wins the game. I believe that in most sports such as basketball, to outplay your opponent, one has to commit himself/herself to doing whatever that needs to be done, in order to win the game. However, I believe that basketball players, especially during the critical and “heated” moments of the matchup, act with passion and not aggression. In other words, I believe that basketball players do not drive to the basket at full speed and force, commit fouls, and overall play extremely hard-nosed offense and defense as acts of aggression but more so as results of their passion for the game. Passion is “a strong inclination toward an activity that one likes, finds important, and in which one invests a significant amount of time and energy” (Donahue, Rip, Vallerand 2007:526). If basketball is someone’s passion as an activity, then that means that they enjoy the process of the game, the result or outcome of the game is also of importance to them, and they devote themselves to being involved and demonstrating effort throughout their participation in the activity. For example, “passionate athletes may be so involved in their sport that they are likely to be aggressive if victory is on the

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