Basketball Essay -- essays research papers

WHY THE NBA DREAM IS RUINING COLLEGE BASKETBALL   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The National Basketball Association is a corporate powerhouse with installments in nearly every major city in the United States. With the exception of European soccer, professional basketball generates more money per season than any other sport in the world. NBA superstars carry as much authority in the entertainment business as the most popular actors, comedians, and musicians. Even the guys who are last off the bench are making more money in one season than the average middle-class worker makes in five years. Corporate America sells its images, logos, slogans, ideas, and viable goods by employing NBA stars to speak publicly on-behalf of their materials. More and more NBA players are showing up in commercials, in magazine ads, on billboards, and in movies. They have their own radio talk shows, their own clothing and shoe lines, their own video games, and even their own restaurants. Essentially, turning pro opens the door to a lifestyle of undeniable prestige, com fort, and public adornment. NBA players can commit the harshest of criminal violations and get off with minimal penalties. NBA players can have just about any woman they want! Enough said. Thankfully, it takes an incredible amount of skill and determination to make it as a professional basketball player. In the last twenty-five years only a handful of high-school athletes have skipped college and gone straight to the big show. Some of these young men built enduring careers and some were washed out before they reached the legal drinking age of 21. Some made it to the hall-of-fame and some remain in the hall-of-shame. Nevertheless, in the past five years there has been an upsurge in the number of high-school athletes who have chosen to forego college and enter the draft. Debate and discussion over this topic as been heated as of late. College coaches argue against professional coaches, writers and reporters argue against sporting agents and advertising executives, and parents squabble with their blue-chip prospects. Supporters of this trend say high-school athletes have the right to select their own path, while their opponents argue that high-school athletes miss-out on a remarkable education opportunity by overlooking the college experience. Clearly, the NBA has no intention of preventing high-school athletes from enterin... ...all. The level of play at the highest level should not suffer because young guys do not know the ins and outs of the game. They should also put a pay-cap on the potential salaries of such under-aged athletes, and agents should be completely removed from the decision making process. None of these things will ever happen though because the NBA makes too much money off its young stars. Sports marketing is already a multimillion dollar business, and agents continue to claw into middle school gyms across the country looking for the next Kobi or Kwame. Moreover, with a game that continues to evolve around its new talent each year, raw flair draws in sponsors, advertisers, and marketers. The public loves to see the young versus the old, and the NBA loves to make money off these kind of situations. So long as colleges are not paying their athletes, which many do in forms of scholarships and performance incentives, college basketball will continue to lose its battle against the NBAâ€℠¢s appeal to young athletes. In this society education is no longer the most rewarding stable of success, instead it’s how many rings you have on your finger and how many video games you have named in your honor.