Abstract
This paper discusses John Updike's poem, "Ex-Basketball Player" and looks at how Updike describes a man who was one the greatest athlete in his town now reduced to pumping gas. From glory to gasoline within the space of a few years--the poem is a thinly veiled warning of the ephemeral nature of the splendor of youth. The paper examines how the poem represents the existential story of a man who lives in a hyperreal world of his own creation and how the life he has created in his mind is as real as the life he once led. The paper concludes that this man is the pinnacle of the postmodern hero in that he lives within his own ideology and that reality is that of the simulacra.

From the Paper
"In the next stanza, Updike sets the scene at the garage. Flick is obviously a man with an active imagination. He works among the "idiot pumps" with their "rubber elbows hanging loose and low". Flick sees the pumps not as the receptacles that they are, but as a group of opposing teammates. He spends his days in reverie, almost as if he is unaware of the life he is now living. The job allows Flick constant access to his memories but its mundanity is not enough to distract him. He lives his life in a dreamlike stupor where reality cannot intrude. Flick instead lives inside his memories of what he once was--a brilliant high-school athlete. Thus he has become a creature bound by ideology. According to Louis Althusser, "Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence" (Althusser 1498). If we accept this theory as correct, we must assume that Flick Webb is an ideological being because his reality is reflected in an imaginary representation of the world."

Tags:Flick, Webb

Abstract
This paper provides a brief insight into the life of basketball player Michael Jordan from his birth in in Brooklyn, N.Y. on February 17, 1963 to becoming one of America's greatest players in basketball history. It examines his career through school and college, his family life and the affect of the tragic death of his father. On January 13, 1999 Michael Jordan, the great basketball player, who goes for the hoop with his eyes rolling and his tongue sticking out, retired from the court forever.

From the Paper
"Michael accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina. In 1981, he was a freshman in college. He played hard and got into the starting lineup. In 1982, it was the NCAA championship: UNC vs. Georgetown, and Michael made the winning shot. Because of him, the University of North Carolina was the 1982 NCAA champion. Then, the Bulls offered him a seven-year-contract worth $6.15 million. In 1984, he moved to Chicago and played with the Bulls using #23. Everything was going well for him. In his personal life, he became a millionaire, met a woman named Juanita Vanoy who was an executive secretary at the American Bar Association, got married, and had three children named Jeffery, Marcus, and Jasmine. In his career life, he was named the Most Valuable Player from 1987-98, NBA Finals MVP from 1990-98, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year for the years 1987-88, 1991 NBA championship, was in eleven NBA All-Star games, and starred in the movie "Space Jam." "

Tags:athletes, baseball, basketball, nba, players, sports, biography

Abstract
Marketing is the exchange that takes place between consumers and sellers to satisfy individual and organizational goals. Successful marketing is customer driven. It encompasses having the right product, at the right price and at the right time. The paper show that this is also the reason that Michael Jordan is a "superstar," instead of just another basketball player. It discusses Jordan's successful campaign with Nike Inc. and how his image affected American society.

From the Paper
"In a culture with an inexhaustible passion to rank, to quantify, to compare and contrast everything, Michael Jordan has been the universal measuring device in appraising greatness. The overpowering magnificence of Jordan, the athlete and cultural phenomenon, has had a profound effect on global society. He didn't invent the fashions, just as he didn't invent the smile and the wink, but he combined all of them in such an engaging manner that the once-unsightly affectations became trendy, and his image became nearly as admirable as his unsurpassed skills."

Tags:endorsement, Space, Jame, NBA

Abstract
This paper concludes that Phil Jackson is one of the greatest coaches of all time and that he has been able to motivate and encourage and enhance the skills of his team of players so much that their performances have been improved to unexpected levels. It discusses how he has been a great influence on the game of basketball and winning the game against all odds, in some cases. His ability to focus on the outcomes that he wants his team to achieve has in no small measure contributed to his immense success as a coach and as a person.

From the Paper
"Leadership is generally defined as the process by which an individual would be able to guide the group of individuals under his leadership towards a collective goal or a collective accomplishment, collective here referring to any type of event from any field such as sporting or music, and so on. The Coach of the team must assume this important role if he hoped for a good performance from his team members. A Coach today must not only be able to guide his team but also be able to adapt a holistic approach in all his dealings with his team. This also means that he must be able to not only bring out that individual's skills in sport but also mould them in an all round psychological growth and development of all the members of the team. This would mean hat a Coach today must possess a certain visionary ideal and the charisma to implement the ideal, and he must use sensible leadership as well as communication skills and qualities to make sensible decisions about his team. However, if the Coach is to have a vision about his team, then he must at first have a basic idea of how he wants his team to perform, where he wants his team to reach, what he wants his team members to accomplish, and how they would have to go about fulfilling his vision. (Leadership Skills and Sport: Going beyond the 'Team Captain')"

Tags:sport, captain

Abstract
This paper explains that, amidst the Cold War and the killing of 11 Israeli Olympic team members by Arab terrorists, the 1972 United States Olympic basketball team took to the court in Munich, Germany, and lost ... or were the players cheated by the Soviets? Dating back to 1936, no American team had ever lost in men's basketball in Olympic play. The author describes the final game between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which was marred by controversy. After the loss, the paper relates, the U.S. team players refused to accept their silver medals.

From the Paper
"This is where the strange confusion begins. After the Soviets in-bounded the ball, the officials halted the game for the first time. The officials decided to put three seconds back onto the clock because it was believed that the Soviet Team tried to call a time-out between Collins' free throws. The officials never acknowledged the Soviet time-out at the time; nonetheless, the additional seconds was granted; the first of a few "issues" that seemed to stack against the United States."

Tags:infamy, underdogs, clock, lay-up, communist

Abstract
The paper discusses how very few professionals have the right to express themselves while they are on the job, that even actors and actresses sport the 'uniform' of their trade. The writer argues that basketball is a highly competitive team sport, and is, moreover, uniquely American and so for players to, almost universally, adopt an image that conveys the lowest common denominator of American life, the ghetto, which supposedly honors its unfortunate racial history, is therefore ridiculous. The writer further argues that the NBA players are highly paid professionals, charged de facto with presenting an image that the world will find attractive and uplifting and so asking the players to present a clean-cut image, particularly in these troubling times, seems little enough to ask of people getting paid multiple millions because they are exceedingly tall and can play a child's game.

Table of Contents:
Why a Dress Code, Why Now?
Dress Codes in Professional Settings and Sports
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Not everyone is as much in favor of the rule as the Chicago student. Terry Boyd, a "hip-hop professor' at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, accuses the NBA of wanting to have it both ways. They want, he says, to hire players who come from a hip-hop environment, but then they want to demonstrate, by choosing attire that might be worn by Commissioner David Stern and not street-wise players, that Stern, and not the players, is in charge of the league (Cholo, 2005). The brother of the student in favor of the code opposes it, contending that it is insulting to hip-hop; more cogently, he points out that the "NBA makes money off hip-hop" (Cholo, 2005). Indeed, rappers Nelly and Jay Z "are part owners of basketball teams" (Cholo, 2005)."

Tags:hip-hop, gangster

Abstract
This paper explains that coaching is nothing but a form of leadership that involves the skills of motivation, guidance, direction, and mending. The author points out that the setting of goals is highly significant for inspiration and triumph because it permits players to set a target with the help of a preconceived plan for evaluating their development at various points over the course of time. The paper states that the motivational level is greatly influenced by the 'pump-up' sessions at the beginning and interval time of the matches; the content of the team talk is determined by the relative position of the opponents in the league.

From the Paper
"A tactful analysis of the various factors of confidence necessitated analysis of the interrelationship of foundation, organization and the behavior of the athletes. The competitive spirit in the sports demonstrates the circumstances for fostering the expertise and performance. The question arises as to what is the means of attaining confidence by the athletes. In the arena of sports psychology, the Achievement Goal Theory in relations to social perceptions is a widely accepted representation in the field. The past analysis in the sphere of Achievement Goal Theory reveals that the task-oriented approach has a long way in achieving the desired motivation and confidence among the athletes. An interrelationship between the guidance to achieve the objective and enhanced sport confidence is being perceived. It is evident that the motivation of the athletes towards achieving the goals is positively correlated to their sports confidence. Conversely, by emphasizing on skill development in the process of learning and competition the athletes are said to develop their sport confidence."

Tags:leadership, goals, pump-up, inspiration, opponents

Abstract
This paper analyzes injuries in basketball. It reviews the literature with regard to the types of injuries that can be expected in basketball and how they can be prevented. The paper suggests that strength training is essential in the prevention of injuries and explains why this is so. The paper also explains why the focus of strength training is leaning towards the entire athlete for injury prevention.

From the Paper
"The future of strength training in realtion to basketball appears to be leaning toward a focus on the entire athlete. It has always been known that football players, for example, require massive strength in order to be capable of defending themselves against physical contact on the football field. However, as basketball players in crease in size and ability, the physical contact that occurs in basketball continues to be more intense. Therefore, basketball players must be stronger and more in tone that ever before in order to meet the demands of the game. Professionals have also concluded that there may be a need to use strength training to build up limbs to an eqaul strength, as some parts of the body are toned more than others due to use. Yet, the focus on strength training to prevent injury is the key to the future of this type of exercise because of the increaed demands on players and the need for players to be capable of functioning at the optimum playing levels."

Tags:imbalances, athlete, muscle, prevention

Abstract
This paper explains that legendary Celtics MVP Larry Bird did not simply prove that white men could jump but also he is credited in bringing back the lagging Boston basketball franchise and infusing new energy into the league. The author uses the functionalist theory, which relates the individual to culture, media and society, to describe Bird's life and career. The paper underscores that, although Bird came of age during an era when America was becoming increasingly racially polarized and although basketball is a cultural template of racial conflicts, this white star has remained focused on the game and has maintained cordial relationships with African-American athletes on his and other own teams.

Table of Contents:
The Importance of Larry Bird
Chronological History of Bird's Career in Sports
How Socialized
Impact of Deviance
Impact of Violence
Athlete's Gender, Race/Ethnicity And Social Class Background As A Factor In His Sport Career
Economics of the Athlete's Sport and the Athlete's Career
Relationship with the Media
Functionalist Theory

From the Paper
"Bird had no fancy schooling in the game and began playing after he received a cheap rubber basketball for Christmas, shooting hoops for hours in his backyard to dull the pain he felt from his parents' divorce and later his father's suicide. As for many disadvantaged players, basketball was his only solace during a lonely and troubled childhood. He also grew up with a strong female role model, although not with a strong male role model. In an era and a town where few women worked, his mother had to work long hours, away from the growing Bird."

Tags:mother teamwork morality harmony, olympic games

Abstract
This paper compares the newspaper coverage of two college basketball games, one involving the men's basketball team at UCLA, the other involving the women's basketball team. The paper covered is be the Daily Bruin, published and distributed on the campus of UCLA. It evaluates how the message sent by the newspaper and received by the reader is that the women's basketball game is simply not as important a sporting event as the men's basketball game. Through a literature review, it also examines how social theories support the view that male sports dominate female sports in the mind of the public and that dominance inevitably is expressed in the media coverage of men's and women's sports in the country.

From the Paper
"One might argue that some of the differences between the coverage of the two games is due to the simple fact that the men's team won their game (and was an upset over a highly-ranked team) while the women's team lost. If the outcomes had been reversed, perhaps the coverage would have been reversed as well, with the coach of the men's team and the reporter both complaining about bad refereeing. Such arguments would be fair, but they would ignore the more important differences between the two stories. There is no doubt whatsoever that the men's game was seen by the editors of the paper as deserving of greater coverage than the woman's game, not only in its place at the top of sports stories in the Daily Bruin, but also in terms of length, with the story on the men's game being almost twice as long as the story on the women's game. The story on the women's game was given short shrift in comparison."

Tags:sport, ucla, daily, bruin, team