Basketball was created and has been played since December 1891 (Griffiths, 2010), it is a game of skill and talent that is enjoyed by fans all over the world. There are numerous leagues, but the two main leagues are the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NCAA is considered amateur where the players are not paid, and the NBA is considered professional where players make millions of dollars. In order for the NBA to get their players they draft from the NCAA, but the rules have changed several times over the years that have permitted players to enter the NBA. The current rule states that NBA players must be one year removed from high school or 19 years of age (Article X, 2008), this rule is considered by many needing the most change.
The early age entry rule, has been blamed for taking away the talent that made NCAA basketball popular over the last 40 years (Hughes, 2013). Recently many of the most talented basketball players have entered the NCAA with no intention of playing a second, third, or fourth year. The NBA permits players to be drafted at an age that many have considered is too young to live the lavish lifestyle of a professional player. This has been cause for the big debate of should the NBA change the eligibility to 20 years of age and two years removed from high school.
Many NCAA basketball players who make the decision to enter the NBA are not mentally prepared to deal with the responsibilities of life in the NBA. Young players depend on others who influence them or help make bad life decisions. What the young players visualize as the reward for playing in the NBA is the big money and with that big money make many mistakes financially. In th...
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...e players from making the mistakes of players that were not successful after completing just only one year.
Works Cited
Auerbach, Nicole, and Jeffrey Martin Sports. "One and Done, but Never as Simple as It Sounds." USA Today. Gannett, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
DeCourcy, Mike. "NBA, College Benefits from One-and-done Rule." Sporting News. N.p., 20 June 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Giffiths, Sian. “The Canadian Who Invented Basketball” BBC News. September 20, 2010. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
Hughes, Grant. "NBA Age Rule More Harm Than Good." Bleacher Report. N.p., 8 Aug. 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Washburn, Gary. "NBA and NCAA Should Rethink One-and-done Eligibility Rule - The Boston Globe." BostonGlobe.com. N.p., 26 Dec. 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
"Article X, Player Eligibility and NBA Draft." National Basketball Players Association, 27 Feb. 2008. Web. 17 Apr. 2014
In the last ten years many young and talented high school basketball players have chosen to enter the NBA draft. These 17 and 18 year olds decide to skip college, and instead they choose to take a big risk and enter the NBA, hoping to become stars and earn millions of dollars. In many cases, these youngsters’ careers are a failure because they don’t turn out as talented as they thought to be. They end up spending only a few seasons in the NBA because they are not good enough to compete at that level. Many of them have to move on to doing other things, such as playing basketball overseas, doing everyday jobs, or going back to college to earn a degree.
Did you know that there are roughly 550,000 male high school basketball players, 15,000 are good enough to make it to play college basketball, one third of that or 5,000 play well enough to make it to division I which is the highest in the NCAA basketball league, and only around 348 go on to play one game in the NBA. On the other hand there are rare cases of players having extraordinary talents and making the jump from high school basketball straight to NBA without any college experience. The debate on this topic is two sided, the first being that the jump from high school to the NBA should not be allowed and the second being that they should be able to do what they want.
It is becoming more and more a trend for high school and underclassmen basketball players to forgo their college eligibility to enter the NBA draft. Most professional sports have restrictions to limit mentally and physically immature players from throwing away their college education to be unsuccessful in the professional ranks. In the National Football League, NCAA football players are not allowed to declare for the pro draft unless they have been in the school’s program for at least three years. In professional baseball and hockey, although they do draft players straight from high school, they have a minor league system set up. These minor leagues allow players the time to develop and still play against an excellent level of competition. This helps their growth process so that when they get into the real big leagues, they are somewhat ready to play and be a factor.
College basketball has gone from amateur competition to multi-million dollar tournaments and will continue to get larger and larger. The student-athlete is no longer a student and has become more and more of an athlete. Admissions are loosened and deals are made in order to get the best basketball players in the land. Athletes who are not students are criticized when they leave for the pros even though they are probably doing the right thing by not perpetuating the myth of academics and athletics. College basketball has become a multi-million dollar industry whether schools will admit it or not and the student athlete is the one getting played.
Suggs, Welch. "NCAA Faces Wave Of Criticism Over Crackdown On Payments To Players While In High School." 17 Mar. 2000
Pennington, Bill. "Expectations Lose to Reality of Sports Scholarships." nytimes.com. New York Times, 10 Mar. 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2013.
players to the NBA as many as three years early. This has resulted in not only
In the area of collegiate sports, there have been numerous heated debates about the integrity of many things concerning the NCAA and how it handles legal and ethical issues. Two well renowned scholars tackle this issue in their co-authored book entitled
... room for adults to be playing a child’s game instead of going to school. If athletes want to play that bad because they feel that they are good enough then they have to make sacrifices. I am not against talented individuals playing professional sports but I am against those who do not obtain a degree and actually get something out of college before doing so. Written in an article published by USA Today “in 2009 that 78 percent of NFL players are bankrupt or facing serious financial stress within two years of ending their playing careers and that 60percent of NBA players are broke within five years of retiring from the game” (Wiles, 2012). Professional athletics is not all about fame and being filthy rich and this is something that young college students don’t understand. It is essential to better yourself and obtain a degree, there is more to life than just sports.
...came upon a final decision to bring about a playoff system that would include all conferences and schools, big or small. In the long run, fans will hopefully be happy with this change and enjoy the same type of tournament that is enjoyed during March Madness.
Today’s league contains thirty teams and these teams are divided into two conferences, the east and west. Fifteen teams are in the east and fifteen teams are in the west. Another way they are divided is there are six divisions that contain five teams each. Two NBA teams the Golden State Warriors, and the Cleveland Cavaliers have battled it out in the finals for the last three years and are the front runners this year(Trenchard NBA Then and Now). In today’s league, players are relying more and more on a three point shot(Segal 14). Players like Stephen Curry are revolutionizing the game of basketball with their shooting talent(Segal 15). This causes players to have to contain a three point shot in their arsenal to even be considered a superstar(Trenchard NBA Then and Now). There are now even more international players in the league today, and many of them show great potential. International players like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kristaps Porzingis are just a few examples of rising stars in the game(Segal 79). As of today the NBA is in a phase known as the LeBron era because of how he took the league by storm ever since he arrived.(Segal 22). Right now, guards are being seen as more of the focal point of the team rather than big men(Segal 33). Some of today’s brightest stars include guards like Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Stephen Curry(Segal 10). Last but not least,
The history instilled in the game of basketball over many years has come to be a very interesting topic to learn about. The man who invented the game is Dr. James Naismith. Naismith’s first ideas for a game like this came while he was working in a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts and wanted a sport for people to play there during the winter months. “He wrote the 13 simple rules, nailed up two peach baskets, and rolled out a ball. From there, the rest was history” (Faurschou 2). “The first official game took place January 20, 1892” (Faurschou 1). Ever since then the rules have been changed and modified but all for reasons that make the game better and as great as it is today. There is a plethora of interesting
The shot clock, the amount of players on the court at a time, and 3 point shots all became a part of the game based on changes made in the sport of basketball (Steve Silverman, 1). Basketball has become a more challenging game over the last 126 years. Some ways they have made the game more challenging is by adding the first NBA teams, the first girls team, and changing some of the rules. But now let’s go back to what basketball was like when it was created.
The actual playing of basketball originated in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith when he had to come up with an “athletic distraction” for the students attending YMCA International Training School. Denying the idea of going outside to play sports like soccer, football, etc. Dr. James Naismith thought back to his childhood days, recalling a game called “duck on a rock”. The concept of this old game was one player was required to defend an object called the “duck” while players on the opposite team threw small rocks to knock it down. How Dr. James Naismith was able to forge a well-known sport from that type of a game will forever be a mystery, yet he set off to work using two peach baskets nailed around 10 feet high. Since the sport he created wasn’t a real sport yet, they were forced to use a soccer ball, aiming to get the ball into the peach basketball while resisting the opposite team trying to defend their basket. The goals, being baskets, presented a problem, when a team eventually scored they had to come up with a way to get the ball out of peach baskets. In order to do so they used a long pole and pushed against the bottom of the basket to be able to get the ball out of there. By creating this game, Dr. James Naismith has been able to bring countries together by eventually bringing this spo...
The first game where players were played to play took place on 11/7/1896 at the Masonic Temple, in downtown Trenton. From there leagues where players were paid to play began to develop. Comprised of 11 teams the Basketball Association of America (BAA) became the first pro league in 1946. The first pro NBA finals took place in 1947. The BAA became the NBA, National Basketball Association, in 1949. Reaching the NBA is the dream of basketball players because only the best play in the NBA.