Informative Essay About Basketball

Collegiate sports have turned into a billion dollar industry and are probably just as popular, if not more popular than professional sports. College athletes put their bodies on the line to play a sport they love, many with hopes and dreams to one day make it to the professional leagues. Athletic facilities are the major money makers for all universities. Colleges bring in billions of dollars in revenue annually, yet athletes do not get paid. Some fans believe athletes should not get paid due to their sports level being “amateurish.”; however, this is far from the truth. There is much more to being a college athlete than just practicing and playing games. These student-athletes must practice, weight lift, go to meetings, travel, go to tutoring and study groups, all the while maintaining sufficient grades. This is very tedious work and is very time consuming. College athletes have a high standard to live up to (Frederick Web; Huma Web; Patterson Web ).

During the winter of 1892 in a town in Massachusetts a physical education teacher, Dr. James Naismith, at a YMCA school created a game where young men could play indoors aside from going outside in the freezing cold. To be prepared for the game, Dr. Naismith came up with some rules for the game, gathered two peach baskets for hoops, a soccer ball, and coached the first basketball game in history.

Basketball was my favorite sport growing up. I’ve played since I was little and I still play the game today. I played basketball at my elementary school, St. Cecilia, from Kindergarten till 8th Grade and also played AAU basketball for about 2 years before entering High School. Going into my freshmen year of High School, the first sport I played was basketball. Tryouts began in about the start of November and ended about 2 weeks after. I had made the Freshmen A team. I was excited and as the season progressed, we didn’t win many games but I still had fun playing. Nearing the end of the season, golf was another sport coming up that I also wanted to try and play. I say “try and play” because at the time, I was also going to play AAU basketball. I had set in my mind that I was going to play basketball for all of my four years of high school, but my parents pushed me to tryout for golf. When the basketball season ended, golf tryouts started. Tryouts lasted for about 2 weeks, and I made the JV team. When I found out I made the team, I was very surprised. I hadn’t put in the hard work as others before tryouts came around, but the coach saw potential in me and that I can become a great player. The coach saw so much potential in me, that every week, I kept progressing in skill and fine tuning my mechanics. Halfway through the season, about 4 or 5 weeks after I made the team, my coach gave me the chance to play with the Varsity Golf team for a couple days. I was excited and eager to

“According anywhere from Australia to the United States and everywhere in between the game of basketball is played.” (Faurschou, “History of basketball”). The game is played anywhere where you can get a ball and something to throw the ball through. “G.L Pierce patented basketball on June 25, 1929.” (Bellis, “Basketball-James Naismith”). Basketball became an official Olympic sport in the 1936 game.

Many people believe that the college athletes are just like the professionals because they train and work just as hard as hard as the pros. First of all college students are working and training so hard because they want to make it to the major-leagues some day. “Students are not professional athletes who are paid salaries and incentives for a career in sports. They are students receiving access to a college education through their participation in sports, for which they earn scholarships to pay tuition, fees, room and

Basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1839. The objective was to throw the basketball into fruit baskets strapped to the railing of the gym balcony. As you can see the game of basketball has changed tons over the years and continues to grow.

We can all agree that basketball is almost becoming popular around the world. So many people play this sport but do people know how basketball started and how it evolute throughout the years since basketball was borned? So like every other sports and creations, there has to be a inventor and in basketball there was a man by the name of Dr. James Naismith. “Created in 1891 in a Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA gymnasium has grown into a game played worldwide by more than 300 million people”(historybits.com). So this game has been out for a very long period of time with many changing of the rules in basketball throughout the history. When it was first played in the late 1800s, there were different rules and even different looking basketball. As for the rules, originally there would be 10 people on the court but it first started with 18 people on the court which after couple of years it changed to only 10 people. Substitution was also different and the rule for this was at first no one can enter until the next game. “The rule was changed in 1920 to allow a player to re-enter the game one time. In 1934, the rule was expanded to allow players to re-enter the game twice, and, in 1945 the rule was finally changed to permit players to return to the game an unlimited number of times”(hooptactics.com). The first basketball looked very alike a football but round. The backboards were made out of straight wood and the baskets were made out of peach baskets or square boxes. There was only

College athletes dedicate a large chunk of their time into practicing and playing games for the team that they play on. They do not have the

college athlete is almost like having a real job. A lot of time and effort goes into everything that

College athletes are known more because of their sports rather than what they are actually majoring in. College athletes put in immense effort and time towards the sport. They make the sport their main priority and manage their lives primarily around the team and sport they are playing. Many college athletes, especially basketball and football players are recruited to become a part of college level team. The athletes decide what college to go to by evaluating the prestige of the sports programs rather than the college itself. For many college athletes is a platform to play the sport they are passionate about. In addition to their passion for the sport, college athletes also put in effort and time towards their respective sports.

According to Horace Mitchell “collegiate athletes are students receiving access to a college education through their participation in sports.” Yes, but it’s not like they are VIP's. Most athletes still have to pay for some of their tuition and all athletes have to go to class. They do everything a non-athlete would do but, they have more stress upon them because they have to maintain a B average in order to play their sport. Athletes are under a tremendous amount of pressure not only from their sport but from keeping up with their studies also. All of that hard work deserves a

High school athletics can be a lifeline to some students. Playing sports are a way out to those who struggle with a homelife that is challenging due to poverty and other variables. There is an ongoing debate about if those athletes who have natural talents should be able to go straight from high school to professional. Now a days the NBA requires these athletes to go to college for at least one full year. Most athletes would skip college to get straight to the money.

The title “student-athlete” does not label college athletes well, the label should read “athlete-student”. Currently, it seems that college sports are a full time job. College athletes have to balance their time between the enormous amount of time in the gym, on the court, or on the field and the significant amount of homework each night. Brad Wolverton wrote an article titled, “NCAA Considers Easing Demands on Athlete’s Time” and stated, “Elite college athletes say they spend 40 or more hours a week on sports, with little downtime between seasons… Other students - particularly those who think they might play professional sports someday - want to dedicate even more time to athletics” (Wolverton 16). With college athletes becoming better through hours of practice and determination, colleges are able to accumulate large sums of money.

He got to thinking and started combining ideas from other games to make the game of what it is known today as basketball. Naismith invented this game in 1891 (Faurschou).

Running into the gym with my team, knowing it was my last middle school basketball game, but first championship game I felt elated and truly blessed. My knees quivered with anticipation after seeing all the bleachers filled with people. After realizing even the press and other media was in attendance I grasped the moment like a newly elected president at his inauguration. I am warming up doing basketball drills, when I began to look at the flags on the gym wall depicting the history of the basketball team. The years and dates of the last championship game, Historically a championship game had not been won since 2007 . The more I stared at the flags, the more it made me want to win this game and make history in this gym. As the crowd and cheerleaders start to chant, cheer and get loud, I started to feel more comfortable and rowdy more than I had ever felt in any other game that I’ve played. Waiting for the referee to blow the whistle for jumpall to start. I felt my fingertips tapping the side of my leg, which for some reason gives me a sign to myself that I am pumped up and ready to play!