There are big differences in men’s and women’s basketball. The ball is smaller (about 1 inch) for women’s basketball, simply because women tend to have smaller hands. There isn’t really much weight difference (maybe an ounce or two). In the WNBA, there are two 20 minute halves and in the NBA, there are four 12 minute quarters. In college hoops, there is a difference in the distance from the three-point shot line to the basket (about 1 foot difference)- women get 19’ 9” and men get 20’ 9”. The shot clock is also a difference in the NCAA. Women get less time to shoot (30 seconds vs the men’s 35 seconds). In the NBA though, men only get 24 seconds- so a difference between college and pro for the men. There are a good many similarities, like the calls and dress players are required to wear. Women get little media coverage in both the pro and college level. At UVA, to go to the men’s games you have to enter a raffle to get a ticket. The women’s games you jsut show up and swipe your student ID. This is just a lack of support and demand for the women’s team. Women in the pros get less money, less air-time on TV, etc. They are overshadowed by men in the sport. To my knowledge there are no openly gay or lesbian athletes in basketball. It is unfortunate that the US is so homophobic (as a whole). I guarantee that there are basketball players in the pros that are gay but they can’t come out because of the effect that it will have on their career- its damning and, for men, most likely would ruin it. Many, not all, but many players probably wouldn’t care to be quite honest. Its the media that ruins careers. It seems that female athletes who are gay don’t have as hard a time as gay men- not to take away from the struggle they went through. Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King came out and it didn’t seem to affect their careers at all, though Navratilova had retired, but she is still remembered as a tennis great and not as being lesbian. Any gay football player has been crucifed and Magic Johnson was labeled gay when it was out that he had AIDS. Nice of the media to promote that one.
Basketball was pretty much an urban game, played by just about everyone before it went professional. The National Basketball League (forerunner of the NBA) integrated before most other professional sports teams and with much less drama. There was initially some segregation in pro leagues, but not nearly as much as in other sports, like baseball, football and hockey. When the NBL integrated, it did it right. 10 players joined two different teams instead of just having one player (like what happened to Jackie Robinson in baseball). World War II had a pretty large impact on the integration of the NBL. With all of the players going off to war, they needed to fill the spots- it wasn’t all progressive thinking. Today, almost 80% of the NBA is Black and 10% is White. Not a single NBA team has as many White players as it does Black players. In an article I read to help with the blog, Scott Brooks, a White guard for the Dallas Mavericks, said, ” Its true in most cases. White people can’t jump as high. That’s a fact. And it’s a fact that White people don’t have much rhythm. We are stiff.” The abundance of Black players is attributed to the fact that they tend to move better all around than White players. There are position discrepancies in other sports like football (Black players tend to be the runningback or wide receiver) and in baseball (outfielders). In basketball, I think the general stereotype is that basketball players are Black and if you are White and you play, you aren’t as good as them. Or White players are considered softer than the Black players and not as tough.
For the blog today, I had to do a little research because I have no personal experience in basketball. I could do the blog with my eyes closed on a sport like tennis or martial arts just from personal findings. Basketball, therefore, is hard for me to talk about. I ended up reading an article online from the Sports Illustrated vault (Nov 25, 1991) called Bashball! The author interviewed Rick Barnes (the Providence College coach) on the newer style of play that was going on at the time. Barnes said, “[the older style of play] was much more of a pure game…there wasn’t as much body on body, like you see today. There was little contact”. The author talks about how cutters almost “slid through the lane without looking as if they were running a gantlet, without having to dodge knees, elbows and forearms placed in their paths. The players were gliding through a smoother, freer game.” Today, there is an emphasis on power and physicality in basketball. Every player is taken and bulked up muscle-wise to be stronger and more physical. Power allows players to break through a line of defense and finesse would allow the player to move skillfully through the other players, like described by the author, without banging body parts in the process. There are definite advantages to each style though.
Talent in basketball usually starts out as passion. If you like something a lot, you will practice it more and enjoy it more as you progress. The better you are at something usually means you enjoy it more also. Talent in basketball is just a natural “thing” that you have; you have “it”. It may be the ability to judge distances well so your jump shot always swishes or you can jump really high- so you dunk well. Femininity in basketball isn’t really an issue other than for the media. They like to label women players as not feminine or too girly or not as good as the guys. Dunking isn’t really done in women’s games and is typically considered masculine, but that doesn’t mean women can’t do it and won’t do it if they get the chance. Women play just as hard as men, sometimes if not harder. We can fight (compete) dirty and unfortunately that gets us the stereotype of fighting like girls (playing like girls).
Women’s basketball was originally an American sport, though it quickly spread to other areas of the world, like Australia, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Like the FIFA World Cup, women’s basketball has a world championship, the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) World Championship for Women, which is held on even-numbered, non-Olympic years. In 2010, the FIBA World Championship for Women will play in the Czech Republic and 16 nations are being represented, including 2 from Africa (Senegal and Mali). Women’s basketball has been played in the Summer Olympics since 1976 (nine times), with the USA winning six out of the nine and the USSR winning twice. England and Australia have semi- pro-leagues comparable to the WNBA in the USA. The Women’s English Basketball League (England) and the Women’s National Basketball League (Australia) tend to serve as stepping-stones into the professional league, the WNBA or other pro-leagues in Europe. Like the WNBA, the WNBL has a TV partner in ABC1 and is televised live or on a delay. In Ireland there is a national team that plays in the semi-pro league in Europe, but earlier this year, the higher-ups in the league cut the team to save themselves from the dramatic economic decline the country faced.
The WNBA is the premier-pro league in the world and no other teams come close to the endorsements and air-time they get, little that they do get, comparable to the NBA. Because of the contract with ESPN that was signed in 2007, the women get more airtime and the teams get TV rights fees (worth millions of dollars). There isn’t really much about teams in other countries and their airtime, other than the fact that Australia has a contract with ABC1.
In 2006, the WNBA made some rule changes to make their style of play more like the NBA style of play. The shot clock has been decreased from 30 to 24 seconds and the time that teams are given to move the ball from one end of the court to past the half-court line was also decreased from 10 seconds to 8. Also, the NBA rule on jump balls has been in play with the WNBA. These changes move the games from a college-like style to the NBA style of play and make the game more fast-paced, thus making it more exciting and more watchable. The teams in other countries mainly follow the FIBA regulations, which are similar to the WNBA regulations. There have been talks of team expansions in the WNBA to fill out the 12 teams already playing. It is unapparent whether other countries semi-pro leagues have any expansions in mind (due to lack of sources). How people watch basketball in other countries has not been written about much. The fact that Australia has a contract with ABC1 shows that people do watch women’s basketball enough to warrant that.
Sources: Wikipedia, FIBA.com, WNBA.com
For my hour of sports media (this was really, really hard, what with all the soccer and Wimbledon analysis going on :) ), I watched a recap of Week 1 in Wimbledon. They basically went through all of the big matches and talked about them and interviewed players. I took notes on gender because there really wasn’t much on race and politics to talk about. Tennis is a pretty widely neutral sport when talking about gender. All players are pretty well represented, though you have the big-timers like Roger Federer (Switzerland), Rafael Nadal (Spain), the Williams sisters (USA), Justine Henin (Belgium), Andy Roddick (USA), Andy Murray (UK), Robin Soderling (Sweden) that tend to make the headlines. Now there are John Isner (USA) and Nicolas Mahut (France) to add to the list because of the “Marathon Match” that they played earlier this week- 5 sets, and 70-68 in the fifth and final (which is unheard of in tennis), over 11 hours, spanning 3 days, over 200 aces between them. They will go down in the history books for many records. And that is all many of the sports announcers can talk about because it is just absolutely ridiculous.
There wasn’t really a lot to say about the women at Wimbledon this week. Serena and Venus sailed past their opponents and they are the real media attention for womens’ tennis now. The men dominated this week, as is usual because of their longer matches and more exciting power of play. If women are represented at all in a bad light, it is because of the screaming and grunting (Sharapova and the Williams sisters are the headers of this), but I haven’t seen any of that kind of attention so far. Venus Williams has caused some scandal this year with skin colored tennis shorts under her skirt, but that is about it.
Men get a lot of media attention. The powerhouses of the sport, Federer and Nadal, attract a lot of media attention because they are just so good (and good-looking- lots of women watch them), especially when they are set to play a Final. They are idols of tennis, up in the books with Bjorn Borg (Sweden), Pete Sampras (USA), John McEnroe (USA), etc. Even more media attention for the guys at Wimbledon- the Queen showed up for the first time in 33 years to watch England’s best hope of a Wimbledon title, Andy Murray, play and win his third round match. Attributes of men that are prized in tennis are sportsmanship, endurance (Isner and Mahut!!!), a damn good forehand and a killer backhand shot. I cannot really think of anything that guys do in tennis that is made fun of. They certainly didn’t talk about anything this week- all the media had was praise.
Basketball is a pretty intense sport in college settings. It is a major money-maker for many colleges, so that influences the kind of players and coaches schools find. Many college-level sports have varsity, club and intramural sections so that anyone can play. Varsity is the “elite” level in college; scholarships are offered and players are recruited. Any school can have and most do have basketball- there would probably be a riot if there wasn’t a team. Basketball is a way for colleges to attract fans and community support. It is also a way for students to express team spirit and university pride. College basketball is a platform to the pro-levels while also giving athletes first-rate educations that can be used later on in life if a pro-career doesn’t work out or an injury happens.
The project my group is doing has to do with Women’s basketball. Kids really tend to learn the basics from people they know- friends, family, etc- before they join a team. They learn how to roughly shoot a ball, how to pass, how to dribble from playing with other people, or in gym class in elementary school (that’s how I learned). When they join a team, kids are trained in the basics again and again until they are right. Once they have the basics, then they can learn different maneuvers that are harder. You can’t do the hard stuff without knowing the fundamentals. Kids are also trained to think of the team and not just of themselves in basketball. The team is the most important part of basketball. The rules also need to be taught. Street games, if that is the way a kid was taught, might not be the same as a regulation game and kids need to know the rules. Adults tend to organize youth sports (basketball) because it involves a good deal of skill and kids need instruction. They need to be taught the correct way to do something and once they have that, they can make it their own or modify it to the way that is best for them (this is something older kids do anyway). Adult supervision is required to an extent; its a dangerous game when you get older youth who are competitive playing. An adult who knows the game can keep it from getting out of hand and enforce the rules (ref). Parents can be a driving factor in a lot of youth sports. A lot of parents played basketball and want their kids to also, so they start them early and are constant fixtures at games. If a child has a promising talent, parents can even start to live through their children. That is only some parents of course. Many parents just want their child to do something active outside of the home so they burn off energy, make friends, learn discipline and have fun. My own parents were awesome when it came to sports- always at my belt promotions in martial arts, always at my home games in high school tennis and they never pushed me to do something I didn’t want to do.
When doing research for project ideas, I found two articles on potential topics that I think my group is trying to fit together. The first is an article from a parenting website- www.familyresource.com and the second is an article on WNBA salaries in comparison to NBA salaries. I didn’t have access to UVA’s server so I was unable to look in the library sources.
White, James, and Gerald Masterson. “Problems In Youth Sports.” Family Resource. Web. 21 June 2010. <http://www.familyresource.com/parenting/sports/problems-in-youth-sports>.
The point of this article is to argue that starting kids in sports too early can have a negative effect. The authors use a lot of literary, physical, and psychological evidence to make their point; they have about 12 references. If my group were to go in the direction of problems in youth sports, this article would provide us more resources to look at (the reference section is pretty stacked) and a negative supported side.
There was no abstract.
Yuille, Brigitte. “Top WNBA Salaries: How Do They Stack Up?” Financial Edge - Investopedia.com. 5 Apr. 2010. Web. 21 June 2010. <http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0410/Top-WNBA-Salaries.aspx>.
The main argument of the article is to point out that women get paid much less than their male counterparts in pro basketball. The author has a lot of data supporting her argument (lots of facts and figures) and she uses specific examples of athletes to help her point. The article is definitely helpful to a group project because of its strong evidential support.
There was no abstract (again).
1. What constitutes achievement?
Achievement means doing your absolute best in anything, be it sports, academics, or life. It is striving towards a goal and trying to make it happen. Even if you don’t actually reach that set goal, if you did your best and tried your hardest, you still have achieved something. The best example of achievement for me is attaining my Second Degree Black Belt. It took me five years, a lot of sweat and tears, but I did it. During the Black Belt ceremony I went through, I felt that satisfaction and peace that you get after achieving your goal.
2. What is good sportsmanship?
Good sportsmanship is respect and playing by the rules. A good sportsman is respectful of the other team and doesn’t belittle them for their good luck in a game. They don’t purposefully injure an opponent, mock them or insult them.
3. Teammates vs. Competitors
Teammates and competitors are opposing sides of a game. Your teammates are playing with you and the competitors are playing against you. A competitor can also be a friendly rivalry between teammates though too. If you are trying to be the best on your team at something (like tackles or strongest or fastest), you are competing with your teammates for that spot, though the competition is not like competing with an opposing team.
4. What is at stake in competition?
Competition has a lot of things riding on the line. Pride in your team/ school/ self. The bragging rights to say “We beat you” or “we were better”. In competing, you also become closer to the people you are competing with. There is a bond formed that is pretty strong.
5. Talent
Talent is a natural ability that just seems to make you slightly better at something. It can be at anything like playing the piano, doing math, or running. Talent is what makes stars. There was just that little something that a coach or a parent saw and decided to put the kid in a specific sport or to train them more. That extra special stuff develops into even more talent. Talent allows you to apply what you have learned to other things easier also.
For my momentum interviews, I had trouble finding people involved in MMA around Charlottesville and those I would have interviewed, involving my project ideas, I couldn’t get a hold of. So, I interviewed my roommate who played basketball for 8 years in Germany and I also called up an old friend from my high school tennis team.
My high school doubles partner (tennis):
Q: Describe a time when you had momentum.
A: That one time when we came back from being down 7-2 in the Skyline High match. Do you remember? That was a crazy match. Your serve was killing and my backhand shots were just going straight down the alley and landing in the back of the court. I don’t even know what we did to come back; it might have been that sweeeet forehander I shot at the girl at the net.
Q: No momentum?
A: I lost several of my singles games in a match and then just couldn’t get back into it that day.
Q: How did you regain momentum one time you didn’t have it?
A: I always loved when my parents could make it to my matches, which wasn’t often. When they would show up in the middle of games, I felt like I needed to step it up so they could see me do well.
My roommate:
Q: Describe a time when you had momentum.
A: A tournament that we were playing in. We worked really hard to get into the tournament and we barely made it in. We knew we probably weren’t going to win, so we just went in and tried our hardest. We won that game, but got taken out in the next.
Q: No momentum?
A: I would say, we had a team that was our rival team- they were much better- and it had kind of been beaten into us that we were expected to lose, so we went in expecting to lose. And we would. Those games were miserable. I hated those games.
Q: Regaining momentum?
A: There aren’t any really memorable times that we had amazing comebacks. The only way we would ever regain momentum is having team meetings, minus the coach, and pep ourselves up because the coach’s pep talk was never enough. Working together was the best thing for us.
