CAREERS IN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL doc

CAREERS IN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL In sti tute Re search Num ber 29 ISBN 1-58511-029-9 O*Net SOC Code 27-2021.00 CAREERS IN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL YOUR DREAM CAN COME TRUE 2 PRO FES SIONAL BAS KET BALL IS THE KIND OF CA REER THAT YOU DREAM ABOUT hav ing when you are a child. For years and years, boys and girls have imag ined be ing the one drib bling the ball down the court, stop ping at the three-point line and launch ing the win ning shot. Children have of ten pre tended to leap into the air and pull off an amaz ing 360-de gree wind mill dunk, all the time won der ing what it re ally would feel like to ac com plish such a feat. Young sters yearn to some day be the one mak ing the im pos si ble, no-look bounce pass to set-up an easy lay-up. It is truly the stuff that child hood dreams are made of. Yet, for most peo ple, pro fes sional bas ket ball ca reers re main dreams. All too of ten, tal ented in di vid u als give up their quest for bas ket ball glory be cause the odds seem in sur mount able. They may be lieve that there are too many other play ers with more tal ent. They may feel that they just aren’t good enough. They may feel that there sim ply aren’t enough job open ings for them to have a prayer of land ing one. Or they may sim ply be afraid of putt ing in the hard work re quired and tak ing such a mon u men tal risk. True, it is hard to be come a pro fes sional ath lete. How ever, it is pos si ble, pro vided a per son knows how to go about it, has the de sire, and is will ing to put forth the ef fort re quired to find suc cess. Do you think you have what it takes to find em ploy ment in this com pet i tive ca reer field? Are you will ing to work hard and make sac ri fices in or der to make your hoop dreams a re al ity? If so, then this re port can help you. It con tains tips from the ex perts, as well as per sonal com ments from cur rent and for mer bas ket ball stars. It cer tainly won’t guar an tee you a long and lu cra tive ca reer as a bas ket ball player. It won’t even guar an tee you a short stint as a bench-warmer in the semi-pro fes sional leagues. How ever, it will give you a glimpse at the prep a ra tion, ef fort, ded i ca tion, per sis tence, and psy cho log i cal for ti tude needed to step onto the court in the big leagues. 3 WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW THE EAS I EST AND MOST HELP FUL THING YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR SELF OUT ON the road to a ca reer in bas ket ball is quite sim ply to play the game. Play as part of a high school or lo cal com mu nity team. Play with the Am a teur Ath letic Un ion, which is an or ga ni za tion that spon sors teams for both boys (Web site at aauboysbasketball.org) and girls (aaugirlsbasketball.org). Play with friends, in churches, in parks, on the streets, or else where. The more you can play, the better. How ever, don’t just play. Learn while you are play ing. Get a feel for the team dy namic, and get used to be ing a team player. Prac tice var i ous shots on your own, like the free-throw, the three-pointer, and the lay-up. Do pass ing and drib bling drills. Doing these things will give you the op por tu nity to hone your skills, both alone and in game con di tions, as well as to help you gain new abil i ties. It will con trib ute the most to im prov ing your game and thus your chances some day to play in the pros. How ever, play ing is far from the only thing you can do. You can read books by and about for mer play ers and coaches, as they have a lot to share about the road to the pros as well as what the life of a pro fes sional player is like. You can also read how-to books and watch skill-build ing vid eos to learn new things that might help you mas ter tech niques for use on the court. You should cer tainly look into at tend ing a skill-build ing clinic or camp. These ac tiv i ties may help teach you se crets and add new as pects to your play. More in for ma tion on these clin ics, as well as a list of Web sites that list clinic dates and lo ca tions, is avail able in the Getting Started sec tion of this re port. 4 HISTORY OF THE CAREER DR. JAMES NAISMITH CRE ATED BAS ket ball, OR “BAS KET BALL” AS IT WAS AC TU ALLY called at first, in 1891. Naismith, a na tive of Almonte, On tario, Can ada, was teach ing phys i cal ed u ca tion at a Chris tian school in the win ter of that year when he was asked to de velop an in door game to help keep ath letic-minded young men en ter tained. He ini tially tried to adapt out door games like la crosse or soc cer for in door use, but these ef forts failed. He even tu ally de vel oped a game where play ers take a ball sim i lar to a soc cer ball and throw it through an el e vated goal, which hap pened to be an old peach bas ket. The last step was for Naismith to de velop a set of rules for his new game. As the doc tor wanted a game that was fairly non vi o lent and did not al low rough hous ing, the first seven rules es tab lished guide lines for game play. Among those rules: “A player can not run with the ball, as he must throw it from the spot on which he catches it…” and “No shoul der ing, hold ing, push ing, trip ping, or strik ing in any way the per son of an op po nent shall be al lowed.” The eighth rule dealt with scor ing, the ninth with out-of-bounds pol i cies, the tenth and elev enth with ref er ees, the twelfth with game length, and the fi nal rule with de clar ing a win ner. Naismith’s game debuted, ac cord ing to sources, on De cem ber 21, 1891 and caught on quickly with schools and col leges through out the United States. Pressed for a name for this hot new sport, the doc tor passed on the mon i ker Naismith ball and opted to dub the game bas ket ball. Thus was the phe nom ena born. Ac cord ing to the As so ci a tion for Pro fes sional Bas ket ball Re search, bas ket ball leagues date back to 1898 and the Na tional Bas ket Ball League, which ran un til 1904. Look at this in ter est ing Web site at: home town.aol.com/bradleyrd /apbr.html Also around this time there was the In ter state League, which ran for one sea son in 1899-00. Sev eral other leagues also started play in the early 1900s. Among them: the Amer i can Bas ket Ball As so ci a tion (1900), the Amer i can Bas ket ball League (1901-02), the Cen tral Mas sa chu setts Bas ket ball League (1901-02), the Mas sa chu setts Bas ket ball League (1900-01), the New Eng land Bas ket ball As so ci a tion (1904-05), the New Eng land Bas ket ball League (1903-04), the Phil a del phia Bas ket Ball League (1902-03), the West ern Mas sa chu setts Bas ket ball League (1903-04), and the West ern Penn syl va nia Bas ket ball League (1903-04). 5 The Birth of the NBA By the late 1940s, the pop u lar ity of pro fes sional bas ket ball reached such a level that the op er a tors of the na tion’s big gest sports ven ues de cided to join to gether and cre ate a new cross-coun try league. Their vi sion be came a re al ity in the sum mer of 1946 with the ad vent of the Bas ket ball As so ci a tion of Amer ica (BAA), which even tu ally be came the Na tional Bas ket ball As so ci a tion (NBA) that we know to day. The league fea tured teams lo cated in Boston, Chi cago, Cleve land, De troit, New York, Phil a del phia, Pitts burgh, Prov i dence, St. Louis, To ronto, and Wash ing ton. The BAA still faced com pe ti tion from the Na tional Bas ket ball League, which de spite play ing in smaller ven ues is gen er ally con sid ered to have fea tured su pe rior tal ent. None the less, the up start new league man aged to ac quire a mix of for mer Amer i can Bas ket ball League stars and col le giate play ers and took the court for the first time in No vem ber of 1946. The league’s first game oc curred on No vem ber 1 of that year, as the To ronto Hus kies played host to the New York Knick er bock ers. Ozzie Schectman of the Knick er bock ers scored the first bas ket of the game. New York led 16-12 at the end of the first quar ter and held onto a 37-29 ad van tage at the half. To ronto ral lied and took their first lead of the game in the third quar ter. Trailing 48-44 at the start of the fi nal pe riod, New York ral lied, even tu ally win ning 68-66 thanks to scores by Dick Murphy and Tommy Byrnes in the fi nal 2 1/2-min utes of the game. Sadowski led the Hus kies with 18 points, while Leo Gottlieb topped all New York play ers by scor ing 14. How ever, the league’s ini tial 60-game reg u lar sea son be longed to the Wash ing ton Cap i tals and their coach, the leg end ary Red Au er bach. Wash ing ton rolled to a 49-11 re cord and only lost one of their 30 home games, win ning the Eastern Di vi sion Cham pi on ship by a 14-game mar gin. How ever, it was the sec ond-place War riors of Phil a del phia who claimed the BAA’s first ever ti tle by downing the West Di vi sion Cham pion Chi cago Stags 4-1 in the best-of-seven fi nals. The War riors also boasted the league’s lead ing scorer dur ing the 1946-47 sea son – a 6’ 5” for ward from Ken tucky by the name of Joe Fulks, who av er aged 23.2 points per game dur ing the reg u lar sea son. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the NBA be gan to fal ter. Scoring was way down, ac cord ing to an ar ti cle by Alex Sachare of the Web site www.NBA.com, high lighted by a 19-18 night mare be tween the Min ne ap o lis Lakers and the Fort Wayne Pis tons on No vem ber 22, 1950. In or der to in crease of fense and make the game more ex cit ing, 6 the league took dras tic mea sures and in 1954, de cided to first im ple ment the 24-sec ond shot clock. The im pact was im mense and im me di ate. Ac cord ing to Sachare, NBA teams av er aged 93.1 points per game that sea son – an in crease of nearly 14 points per game over the pre vi ous year! In 1994-95, the Boston Celtics be came the first team in NBA his tory to av er age 100 points per game for an en tire sea son. Of course, the NBA has an ex tremely rich his tory. From great play ers like Wilt Cham ber lain and Bill Rus sell to leg end ary dy nas ties like the Boston Celtics and, more re cently, the Chi cago Bulls, the Na tional Bas ket ball As so ci a tion has be come syn on y mous with pro fes sional bas ket ball. In 1999, the league fur ther en trench ed it self as the top pro hoops league in the world with the for ma tion of the Na tional Bas ket ball De vel op men tal League, or NBDL. The NBDL, which started play in 2001, is a semi-pro league formed to de velop po ten tial NBA play ers and fu ture pro fes sional bas ket ball stars. Both the NBA and the NBDL con tinue to play to day, and both con tinue to be the pri mary em ploy ers of male pro fes sional bas ket ball play ers in the United States. History of Women’s Basketball One of the ear li est suc cess sto ries in all of bas ket ball his tory was that of a Ca na dian women’s team called the Ed mon ton Com mer cial Grad u ates, or “Grads.” The Grads were a six-player team that toured are nas around the world from 1915 to 1940. Dur ing their barn storm ing years, they won 502 out of the 522 games they played and held onto the ti tle North Amer i can Cham pions from 1923 to 1940. They also par tic i pated in the Olym pics four times, never los ing a game in any of those ap pear ances. Naismith him self has been quoted as call ing the Grads “the fin est team that ever stepped out on a floor.” Even if Naismith felt they were the best, the Grads were far from the only barn storm ing fe male team that gained pop u lar ity in the first half of the 20th cen tury. In 1936, Mis souri-na tive C.M. Olsen formed a women’s team called the All-Amer i can Red Heads. What sep a rated the Red Heads from most teams was the fact that they had a gim mick – each mem ber of the team dyed her hair red, thus liv ing up to the mon i ker. The gim mick worked won ders, as the Red Heads drew im pres sive crowds of fans wher ever they went. The team toured the coun try, play ing against men’s teams and re main ing in ex is tence for more than 50 years. 7 The la dies took their first crack at an es tab lished pro fes sional league in 1978, with the for ma tion of the Women’s Pro fes sional Bas ket ball League, or WBL. The first WBL game pit ted the Chi cago Hus tle against the Mil wau kee Does. The first bas ket came just sec onds into the game, as Joanie Smith of the Does sank a jump shot to give her team the lead. Chi cago led by three at the half and took a com mand ing 13-point lead mid way through the fi nal pe riod. Mil wau kee ral lied, but in the end the Hus tle came away with a 92-87 win. The first sea son saw many ups and downs for the rookie league. In Jan u ary of 1979, the league an nounced ex pan sion. How ever, there was im mense tur moil on many of the ex ist ing fran chises, and me dia cov er age was ei ther sparse or scath ing. Sev eral teams were crit i cized for their busi ness prac tices, and in Feb ru ary of 1979, the league went so far as to as sume con trol of one team (the Dayton Rockettes). Ul ti mately, though, the sea son forged on ward, and the Hous ton An gels downed the Iowa Cor nets to win the in au gu ral WBL cham pi on ship. Shortly there af ter, the league an nounced that it was los ing money. By the end of 1981, the WBL ceased opertations. Even though the WBL was short lived, it helped lay the ground work for women’s leagues to come. Dur ing its last sea son, it saw com pe ti tion in the form of the La dies Pro fes sional Bas ket ball As so ci a tion, which played one sea son in 1980-81. In 1984 came the Women’s Amer i can Bas ket ball As so ci a tion, which also played just one sea son be fore call ing it quits. Two years later came the Na tional Women’s Bas ket ball As so ci a tion. It never saw the court, dis band ing prior to its first sea son. There have been many other women’s leagues that have come and gone since the WBL, but none en joyed the suc cess of the Women’s Na tional Bas ket ball As so ci a tion (WNBA). The WNBA was es tab lished by the Na tional Bas ket ball As so ci a tion Board of Gov er nors in April of 1996. The first player signings came that Oc to ber, as the league made deals with stars Sheryl Swoops and Rebecca Lobo. Eight teams were es tab lished for the first sea son – the Char lotte Sting, the Cleve land Rockers, the Hous ton Comets and the New York Lib erty in the East ern Con fer ence and the Los An geles Sparks, the Phoe nix Mer cury, the Sac ra mento Mon archs and the Utah Starzz in the West ern Con fer ence. The first WNBA game pit ted New York against Los An geles and came on June 21, 1997. Sparks guard Penny Toler was the first player 8 to score a bas ket, but the Lib erty went on to claim a 67-57 vic tory. Cynthia Coo per went on to be come the league’s first Most Valu able Player, and the Comets laid claim to the first ever WNBA Cham pi on ship. The league’s first All-Star Game would n’t be held un til 1999. The game was held at Mad i son Square Gar den, and Lisa Leslie took home MVP hon ors as she led the West ern Con fer ence to a 79-61 win over the East ern Con fer ence. De spite re ports that the league has fi nan cial trou bles, the WNBA is still the top pro fes sional women’s bas ket ball league in the world. Games are tele vised on net work TV, as well as ESPN ca ble out lets. Also, for the first time, the league’s player draft is cov ered live on an ESPN chan nel. Ac cord ing to the league’s of fi cial Web site, WNBA games are broad cast to nearly 60 mil lion fans ev ery sea son. WHERE BASKETBALL PLAYERS WORK THOSE LOOK ING TO PLAY PRO FES SIONAL BAS KET BALL WILL BE WORK ING AS PART OF one of a hand ful of or ga nized leagues or some times as a mem ber of a trav el ing or barn storm ing club, al though such teams are some what rare these days. Cur rent pro fes sional leagues in clude the fol low ing: National Basketball Association (NBA) Continental Basketball Association (CBA) National Basketball Developmental League (NBDL) National Basketball League (NBL) Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Women’s American Basketball Association (WABA), and the United States Basketball League (USBL) Teams are tra di tion ally cen tered in large cit ies such as Boston, Chi cago, De troit, Los An geles, Mi ami, and New York, but travel from city to city on a reg u lar ba sis for road games. 9 Of course, pro vided you are se ri ously pur su ing a ca reer in pro fes sional bas ket ball, you prob a bly al ready knew all of that. You should also al ready be in ti mately fa mil iar with the var i ous workplaces that are com monly uti lized by bas ket ball play ers, pro fes sional or oth er wise. The rea son, of course, is be cause you are most likely al ready putt ing in hours upon hours of work at these lo ca tions, ei ther on your own or as part of an or ga nized school or com mu nity club (or both). You prac tice and play on a bas ket ball court. You pre pare in a locker room. You use a gym or weight-room to help train and build a better phy sique. These ac tiv i ties may get more time-con sum ing and more elab o rate as you move from high-school hoops through col lege and into the pro ranks, but they will al ways be an es sen tial part of your work du ties. How ever, there are still some changes that you should be aware of. Pro fes sional courts, while ex tremely sim i lar to col le giate or high school courts, do dif fer some what from their NCAA and prep level coun ter parts, and since pro fes sional bas ket ball play ers spend much of their time prac tic ing or play ing in these are nas, you should be aware of the in con gru i ties and pre pare for them ac cord ingly. Ac cord ing to in for ma tion pro vided by The Spalding Book of Rules, men’s and women’s prep courts are 84ft long and 50ft wide. NBA, WNBA, and NCAA courts are all 10ft lon ger (mea sur ing 94ft long and 50ft wide). The book goes on to point out other dif fer ences. In col lege hoops as well as in the WNBA, the free-throw lane is 12 x 19, as com pared to the NBA’s 16 x 19 lane. All forms of bas ket ball place the free-throw line 15ft from the bas ket while the three-point line var ies, mea sur ing 19ft 9in from the cen ter of the bas ket in the NCAA and WNBA and 23ft 9in in the men’s pro fes sional league. In all forms of bas ket ball, how ever, the field of play will also con tain the fol low ing: an 18in bas ket, lo cated 10ft above the foor; a back board that mea sures 6 x 4; a pair of side lines and a pair of end lines; a di vi sion line at cen ter court; two cen ter cir cles, one with a 2ft ra dius sur rounded by one with a 6ft ra dius; and a pair of 28ft long coach ing boxes, one lo cated be hind each side line. 10 [...]... athletes and playing basketball for a living They dream of taking the ball down the court, finding the open seam and making a dazzling lay-up They dream of doing a 360-degree windmill slam dunk, astonishing the crowd with their athletic ability They dream of sinking the long three-pointer with time running out, winning the game for their club Professional basketball is one of those careers that dreams...PLAYING THE GAME OF COURSE, YOUR PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS CAREER IS TO PLAY basketball Everything you do, from weight training and cardiovascular exercise to studying game tapes and practicing scoring drills, is done with the goal of making you a better basketball player However, what many aspiring professional players fail to realize is that basketball itself contains many individual... during the course of a game Each of these fundamentals is part of being a basketball player, and you should practice and become highly skilled at them all Shooting It should go without saying that shooting the ball and making baskets is the single most essential part of the sport As Dr Ralph L Pim writes in his book Winning Basketball, “Shooting is the most important fundamental in the game of basketball. .. National Basketball Association www.wnba.com n Women’s American Basketball Association www.womensaba.com n World Beach Basketball Association www.beachbasketball.com/Default.htm 28 PERIODICALS n Basketball Digest www.centurysports.net /basketball/ index.html n Basketball News www.basketballnews.com n Dime Magazine www.dimemag.com n Slam www.slamonline.com n Winning Hoops Newsletter www.lesspub.com/winninghoops... n Women’s Basketball Magazine www.wbmagazine.com WEB SITES n Basketball World www.basketballworld.com n CBS Sportsline NBA www.sportsline.com/nba/ n CBS Sportsline WNBA www.cbs.sportsline.com/u /basketball/ wnba/index.html n Champion’s Athletic Academy www.getgameatchampions.com/clinics.html n CNNSI.com Basketball www.sportsillustrated.cnn.com /basketball n ESPN.com NBA sports.espn.go.com/nba/index n ESPN.com... eight-franchise Continental Basketball Association, or the 10-team United States Basketball League Women players can also try for positions with the four-team Women’s American Basketball Association or the six-club National Women’s Basketball League In all, there are more than 100 professional basketball teams in existence today Traditionally speaking, nearly all of the openings in professional basketball went... only a few will win Realistically speaking, securing a job as a professional basketball player, or as any professional athlete for that matter, is a difficult venture Few jobs are as highly coveted as those in professional sports Becoming a professional athlete is the dream career, so you can imagine that the competition will be unbelievably tough There are 29 teams in the National Basketball Association,... to stay calm, and know when they are overdoing it Working hard and keeping focused are important, but so are remaining composed, being smart, and not overworking Pessimism is one of the most dangerous enemies of the professional basketball player Athletes must have a positive outlook on things, as well as a short memory when something goes wrong In addition, basketball players must always want to do... include sociology, psychology, business administration, marketing, accounting, physical education, communications, and kinesiology Any of these would be fine choices should you decide to pursue a degree The important thing to think about in planning your education is what you would like to do with your life after your playing days are over Choose a major that fits your post -basketball career plans Of greater... who enjoyed four-year careers in the NCAA That has been changing in recent years, though More undergraduate players are declaring for the NBA Draft each year, and more and more teams are snatching up these freshmen, sophomores and juniors More recent trends have seen NBA teams select an increasing number of international players (such as China’s Yao Ming, the first selection in the 2002 NBA Draft) . CAREERS IN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL In sti tute Re search Num ber 29 ISBN 1-58511-029-9 O*Net SOC Code 27-2021.00 CAREERS IN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL YOUR. court, stop ping at the three-point line and launch ing the win ning shot. Children have of ten pre tended to leap into the air and pull off an amaz ing 360-de