Slam, Dunk and Hook, and Fast Break

The book “Last Shot” shows what a basketball game is really about. It doesn't just show you the game and who wins; It shows you how all the competitors need to prepare immensely to attempt to win. It shows you how the players could throw everything away with their grades or selling team merchandise for a maximum profit. During the read of this book, you are Stevie Thomas, teen writing contest winner. You get to experience the time of your life (at least from his perspective), which is going and reporting at the Men’s Basketball NCAA Tournament Final Four. You discover what the reporters have to go through and maybe what the players are told to do. Basketball is much more than just the game, it’s life.

John Maloney’s “Good!” A short (14-line) poem incompasses the fast paced events within a Basketball game.It is limited third person from the perspective of a player that gained possession of the ball after a missed basket. The poet focuses the narrative onto the actions after the rebound occurred. The speaker of the poem, a player on the court, is focused on the game and the game alone, determined to keep the ball in his team’s possession and allow his team the chance to make a shot. Which in the end, he ends up taking the shot himself earning his team two points.

In the poem, “Ex – Basketball Player” by john Updike, (which is a narrative poem) illustrates the nature of life on how life is potentially is seen has a mirror to other people’s life, especially people who play sports. Life is the physical and mental experience of an individual. An in the poem the main character Flick, supply the poem with a good example of how life is potentially a mirror for other people. This poem is formally organized, even though it locks some qualities, it still haves the qualifications of a good poem. The “Ex Basket Player” is an interested poem because it has a good theme, tone and lots of figurative languages.

“Rejected by Rose,” screamed, TNT broadcaster, Kevin Harlan. Derrick Rose’s block on Rajon Rondo’s shot was the play that forced game 7 and kept the Bull’s season alive. The 2009 first round series between the Chicago Bulls and the reigning NBA champions, Boston Celtics was the best playoff series I ever watched. What does Rose’s late-game heroics have to do with anything? The excitement of the sport of basketball. My paper will be about my favorite sport to watch and play I will also mention about my favorite sport to participate in ancillary. Afterward, I will relate my favorite sport to Michael Mandelbaum’s The Meaning of Sports and offer my opinion on the book.

Another way the author shows the player's emotions in the poem,”Slam Dunk, & Hook” is with his heavy verb usage seen often in the poem. Line 29-31 states,”Trouble was there slapping a blackjack Against an open palm”. The boys coming together for a game when they weren’t at their best was the only positive thing in their lives. The game was like an escape from reality because without it, they would have no control over themselves with all the bad in their lives. The

Towards the beginning of the novel, there is a scene where Bobby is caring for Feather, his infant daughter, when his basketball rolls away from him, towards the door. This basketball symbolizes Bobby's old life, and his old responsibilities. Before he had Feather, Bobby would play basketball with his friends, and just have fun. Now, the responsibility of having a child has consumed all of his time, and when the ball rolls away from him, it represents his old habits and actions leaving his life. This supports

By contrasting a player’s ardent exuberance for basketball with his xxx disappointment in the poem “American Hero,” Essex Hemphill reveals the athlete’s conflict between his enthusiasm for the game and his resentment toward his superficial fans. For instance, the author emphasizes the player’s fervent frame of mind, “[having] nothing to lose... / I let the tension go. / Shoot for the net. / I slam it through...” (Hemphill 1, 8-9, 11-12). Hemphill illustrates the competitor’s energetic passion for basketball by describing his game-winning skills and slick athleticism. In contrast, the poet depicts the player’s resentfulness toward the cheering mass as he muses “I scored / thirty-two points this game / and they love me for it” (13-15). Despite

The value behind entertainment depends on each individual and their likings, implying that not every single human being enjoys playing sports. However, people who do seek enjoyment through athletic activities should know that such vigorous movement can permit various benefits. Competing 5 on 5 on the basketball court involves teamwork and a game plan. The 5 players on each team must create a clever strategy for allies to follow through on court. Possibly achieving a blind pass, jab step or block can make a victorious battle. Communication, team cooperation and interpreting the opponent’s next

Paragraph 5 = From a structural-functionalist perspective, you realize that by the game of basketball, you can build friendships easily just by having something in common like loving the game. You also notice how job opportunities can be given by playing the sport or becoming a trainer in the game and help the athletics stay in shape. By having more job opportunities, it expands the economy. From a young age, basketball can not only help you academically, but help you get into colleges.

According to the NCAA, only about 0.03% of high school basketball players get drafted out by an NBA team. 0.03% is such a little percentage that it is the same chance of someone getting four of a kind in a first round of poker (www.norwichcsd.org/Downloads/ ProSportsOdds.doc). With this striking percentage it is amazing to think so many young players hope to make it to the pros. In the end, regret and defeat are much too common, a theme that John Updike features in his poem, “Ex Basketball Player”. The poem's persona, Flick Webb, was surely not one of those lucky 0.03%. Flick Webb was the star basketball player at his high school. Now older, he works at a gas station, sometimes reliving his old dream by gloomily bouncing a tire by himself.

Basketball is the best sport because it can be played with two to five players each side, and also a sport to play with friends and other competitors. According to Total Sportek, Basketball is the second most played game in the world. It had at least a billion followers and is a major sport in USA with NBA generating over 4.75 billion dollars per year in revenue. Basketball can also be played with a person and be entertained for hours. It is a good sport to play because playing basketball has benefits on health and fitness. It burns calories by running, jumping, and quick lateral movements done in basketball provides a significant amount of aerobic exercise and can burn a great deal of calories. It helps develop concentration and self discipline through the rules implemented in the game, breaking them can result to penalties for the player and the team. Practicing self discipline helps one another become more competitive and fair to their game focused in succeeding. It improves awareness in which a person will be aware of oneself and evolve the understanding the relationship of these objects when there is a change of position. Enhanced confidence in which self esteem increases and help gain more confidence, being a confident person has more faith in his or her skills and can face life with a better opposition. Basketball

Remember that boy in high school that was the star of the basketball team? He still holds most of the records for the team. He scored more points than anyone else in the school’s history. He never studied much because he was an athlete. His basketball skills were going to take him places. But high school ended and there are no more games to be played. Where is that former all-star now? In his poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” John Updike examines the life of a former high school basketball star. Flick Webb was a local hero, and he loved basketball. He never studied much in school or learned a trade because he was a talented athlete. Now years later, the only job Flick can find is working at the local gas station. He used to be a star, but now

In contrast to the imagery used by Housman, Updike stresses the athlete’s fading glory as the athlete has lived past his triumphant days. As “To An Athlete Dying Young” begins the poem through the imagery that shows the athlete’s success and his gain of honor, whereas “Ex-Basketball Player” indicates that the athlete’s life is no longer filled with glory. The road leading to the place where he works shares with the readers how meaningless and empty the athlete’s life has become as the road “runs past the high-school lot, bends with the trolley tracks, and stops, cut off” (2). Flick, the subject of the poem, has had his years of glory when he played for his high school since he had the skills and talent to break records. He had extra talent that made him become one with the basketball and handle it like no one else could as “his hands were like wild birds” (18). Although Flick had his glorious years, unlike the athlete in “To An Athlete Dying Young” Flick’s glory does not last because he now “checks oil, and changes flats” (20). “To An Athlete Dying Young” emphasizes that it is better

Thesis: This paper argues that basketball is the most difficult sport, for a number of reasons that will be pointed out through the literature on the game, the coaches, and the players.

Sports, a very popular past time today, have been around since ancient times.  Greek Olympic Games featured events from chariot races, javelin throws, to wrestling.  In addition, a game similar to soccer was played in China by the second century BC.  In England, a violent rugby type game was even played to settle feuds between villages.  With the development of the industrial revolution and the creation of the first public schools, sports decreased in violence and were played more recreationally and constructively.  Basketball was invented to help the youth in New England spend their energy in the winter months.  Since the early 1900’s sports have been a key experience in the United States (“History of Sports”).  I have played