Reflection Paper about Nash’s Interview Steve Nash is considered one of the greatest point guards in the first decade of NBA, and he already became a national hero in Canada based on his tremendous achievement as a professional basketball player. However, according to his interview, Nash was considered a player without sufficient talent to be even a good college player in the United States. No college was willing to offer him a scholarship initially, because he was a Caucasian player from Canada. Caucasian players were widely considered as athletic inferior to African players, and Canada was also considered a country that has few talented basketball players. This is a typical stereotype about Caucasian basketball players in NBA, and usually …show more content…
has a significant negative impact to them. However, Nash had a great career at both college and professional level. Based on this interview, I think that the attitude of “Have Fun” and self-discipline are two major reasons responsible for Nash’s great career. According to this interview, Nash mentioned the importance of the support and education from his parents. As a former professional athlete, Nash’s father told him how to enjoy the game and get teammates involved during the competition. Nash’s mother was also very encouraging to him about enjoying the game. According to the textbook, “have fun” is one of the most effective thought to relieve the negative feeling under the high pressure. Nash recalled that the first four months at college: he was screamed by his coach everyday, and the practice intensity was much higher than the practice at high school. If without a sense of “have fun”, many young players may choose to quit even if they are really passionate about basketball. Actually, having a sense of “have fun” is one significant characteristic to distinguish elite and ordinary athletes. Elite athletes can endure intense training because they enjoy in it, so their skills can be improved continuously. On the other hand, some players may simply give up because they believe the practices and competition are drudgeries. Nash learned to “have fun” in his early age from his parents, and this attitude can be an important factor to lead him as a successful athlete. The sense of self-discipline is significant to Nash’s success.
He said that “there is no reason to not working”. In this statement, Nash means that it is essential to work hard to be an elite athlete. Personally, I think self-discipline as a character of elite athletes is more important than the attitude of “have fun”. In order to achieve the peak level of own potential, intense training and practice are necessary even to athletes who have excellent physical tools. The process of being excellence cannot be always enjoyable. For instance, Nash’s outstanding skills of shooting and dribbling are the results of hard-work. These techniques must be rehearsed and practiced intensively. Nash admitted that he did not have the excellent athletic ability among NBA players, but he spent more time for practice than most players in the league. Beyond the interview, I also heard that Nash followed a strict diet through his whole career to maintain the optimal level of body condition. It can be extremely difficult to take unsavory but healthy foods for a long period, and even most elite athletes only follow their athlete diet during the season. The high level of self-discipline can be one primary reason for Nash’s success. As a fan of NBA, I can list many players with great physical tools but fail to achieve a successful career just because they lack of
self-discipline. To conclude, I think that the attitude of “have fun” and the self-discipline are two possible reasons for Nash’s great career as a player, and I also believe these two characters can be important factors to distinguish elite athletes and other less-achieved athletes.
It was not until the year 2002 that the NBA was able to find someone to match Jordan’s dazzling acrobatic style of play. His name is Lebron James. Lebron, who plays shooting guard and small forward, stands at an athletic six-eight. James, however, never played in the NCAA. He was drafted straight out of high school in the 2003-04 season, by the Cleveland Cavaliers. James is already on the road to success by achieving co-rookie of the year, and he appeared in the Olympics. James is expected to be a champion, but he may not have what it takes to become a real champion such as Michael Jordan was. Before Jordan or James can be categorized as a champion, they have to be able to handle pressure, fame, and maintain a positive relationship with their team. When comparing Jordan and James’ clutch capabilities, or their ab...
The source that I used, “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” by Biography.com no authors are listed is a great source that gave me a lot of information that will help me with my reader response essay. I came across this website by entering my search question into Google. After looking through a dozen of articles “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” had the most detailed information of all the links. This article gave me a lot of information that will be correlating to my search question which is this: What major influences did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have in his basketball career? The “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” article had three sections that broke
Our staff tells you who was snubbed as an NBA All-Star starter. Jonathan Ebrahimi () : For starters, I think we all agree that Westbrook was snubbed this year. He’s keeping a largely under-talented Thunder team in the thick of the playoff hunt and is putting up historically great numbers to do it. Out East, there are two players I feel have been overlooked. For starters, Isaiah Thomas has been having a wonderful season for Boston.
I read How Vince Carter Conquered the NBA Drive, by Chris Young. I learned a lot of things about the NBA problems and the way the players really think not just how they show them in T.V. One of the things I learned about Vince Carter was that he had a lot of problems with his first manager. An example is when Richard Peddy his first manager got put in prison for stealing money from An NFL player. Vince Carter changed his manager and sued his old manager. I also learned that the first year that Vince Carter played he was underestimated the manager though he would be like a helping hand for Tracy Mcgrady his cousin and Ex-player for the Raptors. I also didn’t know that Vince Carter quit the contract with his sponsor Puma because the shoes were hurting his toes. I also found out that Vince Carter the second choice For the Raptors the Raptors first choice was “Tractor” Taylor a big center something the Raptors needed really bad. Another thing I learned was that the Raptors had to pay 27 million to get into the NBA. The last thing I learned was that Vince Carter did not want to do the NBA Dunk contest he was convinced to do it by his friend Kevin Garnett.
"It’s easy to talk about; it’s easy to sum it up when you just talk about practice. We sittin' in here, I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we in here talkin' about practice. I mean listen, we talking bout practice. Not a game, not a game, not a game. We talking bout practice. Not a game, not a, not a, not the game that I go out there and die for, and play every game like it’s my last. Not the game. We talking' bout practice, man.”- Allen Iverson on his lack of effort in practice in an interview with the press conference when they asked him about missing a practice. Do you now label him as a thug or just an arrogant asshole? It’s true many people would never give this guy another chance to try to clean up his name and would be perceived as arrogant no matter what he does after this interview. People are arrogant towards Allen Iverson because of the way he speaks in this interview. People can understand what he is trying to say, but they are being subjective to what they are hearing because he is not using correct English.
Reggie Harding was the first high school player to make the jump from high school to the NBA, and he did this in 1963. He spent five mediocre seasons in the NBA and was never the special player that people thought he would have been. Since then, there have been around 40 high school players who have decided to skip college and declare for the NBA draft. The bulk of these players have come within the last seven to ten years. Out of these forty or so players, no more than ten have had a successful career. Last year seven high school players entered the NBA draft, and only one of those seven had a successful first season, and that was Lebron James (Smith).
The NBA is well known for the number of amazing professional athletes it has had over the years. Some of the most gifted and talented individuals come through the NBA and one of the better-known superstars is none other than Kobe Bryant. For years people have wondered what makes Bryant so successful. The main contributors that lead to Kobe Bryant’s success is his hard work and dedication, his mindset, his natural ability’s and talent, and the people that have helped him throughout his life. Kobe Bryant was very successful in the NBA because of the amount of hard work he has put in, the people in his life, his relentless determination and his god given natural abilities.
Several foreign basketball players have individually left their marks on NBA courts, in NBA record books, and in their fans’ hearts. Different ethnic groups, races, and sports fans in general have united, cheering on heroic efforts from players from overseas. These international players amped up the level of competition in basketball and found themselves at home in the NBA. Four international players have been honored with the most prestigious award a player can receive in professional basketball, NBA MVP. These same four players are undoubtedly future Hall of Famers and were listed in the top 30 international players of all time in a 2013 “Dime Magazine” article (Daruaku). These four players, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan,...
“There’s no next Michael Jordan, says Magic Johnson. He continues saying, you can’t compare anyone to him, what he has done for the game can never be matched. Michael Jordan will always be Michael Jordan and no one better (Johnson, 61). He’s the greatest that ever played, in terms of doing things that Larry Bird and I never dreamed about.'; (62) Doug Collins says that, “Practice is what made him go. Every day he had this need to show who was the best. It’s like `I’m the best today and I’m going to show you and tomorrow I’m going to show you and the next day I’m going to show you again.’ That was how he competed. All the great geniuses of the world were like that. We’re talking about Einstein, Edison, and Roosevelt. These people came across something and worked to perfect it (Collins, 61).
First, Bill Russell, the first African American National Basketball Association player to attain superstar standing, encountered a serious amount of discrimination from people battling the fact that he was an extraordinary basketball player. Born into a racist community in West Monroe, Louisiana, Russell was lived his entire childhood strictly segregated, causing him to become sensitive to the all racial prejudice which ...
Abstract: Basketball players who enter the NBA early are not ready for the NBA. Early entry into the NBA by high school and college basketball players has had a negative affect on the college basketball program, the NBA, and the players themselves. Each year the number of early entries in the NBA rises more and more. In 1997, 47 basketball players entered the NBA draft early, and the number has risen since then. The college basketball program is drained of talent due to players leaving early. The high school players that go directly into the NBA are hurting the college program because they never contribute to the college program at all. The NBA now has to deal with a higher level of immaturity and disrespect by young players. College basketball players obtain a certain amount of respect and maturity in college. The players suffer by not grasping the concept of learning due to lack of education. Many analysts say that entering the NBA before finishing a four-year program is entering too early. The NBA commissioner, David Stern, has begun to work on ways to encourage players to go to and stay in college.
Gordon Hayward. Wow, Amazing, Great and how. How does he do it. He is an awesome player. I love the way he plays. I just would love to spend a day with him. He is an awesome player and a special person. I would just ask him to tell me how he got so good and in shape.
His main goal was to put his family out of poverty. The text states, “he wanted everything for his family...this provoked him to do basketball” (Handles Up 1:38). When he finally played basketball, he was good at it, in fact he was very good. Him and his brother saw their raw talent and started to train, the text explains this by saying, “he used this as motivation, he wanted better for his family” (Handles Up 2:17). He worked very hard, so hard scouts would come out and see him train and even offer a contract to a local Greek League team! He took this offer happily and started to play on a 16u summer league professional team. He loved this, but he just wanted more, his family was still in poverty and he felt like this just wasn’t good enough. So, he took the next step. He had always been skinny, and that was the main reason he couldn’t get on a premier Greek League team, so he went into training. He trained and trained, the speaker states. “Now his family had a chance to go to the USA and at that moment he knew he had succeeded”(Handles Up 5:55). Yes, he gained enough weight that he was entered into the NBA, but Giannis wasn’t done yet. He became a major impact on the Milwaukee Bucks, right when he stepped on the floor. Every year he has gotten better and he is now an all-star and an MVP candidate. Looking back on all this Giannis felt great emotion, the speaker portrays this by saying,
Many may say this man worked harder or that man worked harder, but at the end of the day Kobe Bean Bryant was one of the hardest workers the NBA has ever seen. One example of Bryant’s insane work ethic was when he said after he won his 5th NBA Championship, he went right back into the gym to start his offseason grind early while his teammates were still basking in the glory of winning the title. Kobe’s
Michael Jordan once said “I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win”. This have help people of all ages get through their burdens and do something they love instead of doing some negative. For many people basketball has become more than a game, it’s the way of life. The American game of basketball has traveled now, it’s played by more than 250 million people worldwide.