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 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 presents a detailed look as to how Dr. James Naismith, Canadian theologian and teacher, created the game of basketball. The paper examines the influence he got from the game as a young child up until him experimenting with the early game in his capacity as gym teacher in the early 1900's.

From the Paper
"After the practice, the captain approached James and asked if he would play in the team's next game against Queen's University. James accepted and for seven years James played without missing a single game. Even though, at that time, football was viewed as a tool of the devil, Dr. Naismith enjoyed it enough to block negative feelings expressed by fellow theology students."

Tags:McGill, Gulick, Y.M.C.A., Stebbins

Abstract
In this essay, the author examines the life of Dawn Staley, from her early childhood in Philadelphia as the daughter of a working class family, her introduction to basketball to her career through high school, university and the Olympic Games. The paper chronicles her development both as a player, a coach and her evolution into a role model for all women. The writer describes her induction into the WNBA and her progress as a professional women basketball player leading to her career as a professional women's basketball coach.

From the Paper
"On and off the court, Dawn Staley has been a positive influence for female athletes. Whether it is Dawn Staley, the basketball player or Coach Dawn Staley or she is heading up her foundation, she seems to always give her very best. Staley is a perfect example of a person who has taken their natural born abilities and done the best that she could with them. As a starting player and member of the WNBA, she blazed an avenue for other female athletes to follow. Much like the vapors that follow a comet's tail as it streaks through the sky. As a coach, she has given other female athletes the opportunity to be better players just as Pat Summit did for many players at the University of Tennessee. Dawn Staley has not forgotten to give back to the community that helped her get where she is today nor has she kept the benefits of her experience to herself. Even if she was to stop having anything else to do with basketball, the indelible mark she has left on women's basketball is undeniable."

Tags:basketball sport women talent, player of the year, scholarship coach game ABL WNBA

Abstract
"In the film The Basketball Diaries (Scott Kalvert, 1995), the subject is not sports but drug abuse and the way a young man descends into the hell of drug use on the streets. The main character is a member of a winning high school basketball team, but more and more his life comes to center not on the basketball court but on the streets where he can make money to buy drugs.

From the Paper
"In the film The Basketball Diaries (Scott Kalvert, 1995), the subject is not sports but drug abuse and the way a young man descends into the hell of drug use on the streets. The main character is a member of a winning high school basketball team, but more and more his life comes to center not on the basketball court but on the streets where he can make money to buy drugs. He dreams at first of being a basketball star, but soon he no longer dreams and only seeks to escape through drugs. The film makes use of a number of themes related to rugs and drug abuse in developing its image of the downfall of this one young man, though the film is not fully successful and only presents its story without really developing an explanation or tying the themes to the world at large.

The primary message of the film is that drugs are bad and ..."

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
The paper refers to Brian Hindo's essay entitled "The NBA's Youth Squad" that discusses the 'prep to pro' recruitment drive by the National Basketball Association (NBA) who draft the most attractive high school athletes before they enter college. The paper explains the fear some have of making it too tempting for a high school player to pass up potential vocational opportunities in college but argues that the life of a world-class college athlete garners almost no pay while NBA stars receive millions of dollars. The paper proposes that instead of ending the 'prep to pro' drive, the academic standards of college athletes should be raised, to ensure that students in college sports teams can keep up with their classes in case they cannot play competitive professional athletics.

From the Paper
"According to Brian Hindo's essay entitled "The NBA's Youth Squad," the drafting of high school age athletes by the National Basketball Association may be rapidly coming to an end. Hindo argues that the league will have to seriously consider bowing to public pressure and end its long-standing policy of drafting the most attractive high school draft 'picks,' before these students enter college, what is commonly called the 'prep to pro' recruitment drive (Hindo 2004). Early recruitment means that the high school students lose their eligibility to play as nonprofessional athletes in college, but can score multimillion dollar contracts--before they are old enough to vote, in some cases."

Tags:college, classes, salary, scholarships, career, sport

Abstract
This paper discusses the career and successes of Michael Jordan, the famous basketball star. The writer traces his career from its beginning as a winning freshman to the many championships won and medals received. The writer also includes Jordan's own opinions about his career, the view of his teenage son and of critics like Michael Hunt.

From the Paper
"Jordan is not only the best-known player in the history of basketball, he is considered the best-known athlete in the world (Michael2 pp). Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Wilmington, North Carolina, he accepted a basketball scholarship from the University of North Carolina and as a freshman scored the winning basket in the 1982 NCAA championship game against the Hoyas of Georgetown (Michael2 pp). He was selected college player of the year for the 1983-1984 season, and in 1984 led the United States basketball team to a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and that same year left college to play with the Chicago Bulls (Michael2 pp). Jordan announced his retirement prior to the 1993-1994 season, stating that he had lost his desire to play professional basketball (Michael2 pp). Initially known for his scoring, his tenacious defensive play had made him one of the greatest all-around basketball players in NBA history, as well as a worldwide celebrity due to his success in the NBA and the Olympics, and his numerous commercial endorsements (Michael2 pp)."

Tags:NBA, career

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

From the Paper
" Pat Riley and Phil Jackson could not have more different styles of leadership and coaching in the National Basketball Association. This research examines some of the key differences in their leadership styles and notes the conflicts that have arisen from those differences.
During one championship game against the Bulls, Pat Riley erupted. Two quick technical fouls sent him to the dressing room, necessitating a long walk from one end of the floor to the other, right past the Chicago Bulls bench. With every step Riley took, Bulls Coach Phil Jackson's face tightened. He tried to look down, then away. Jackson was trying not to laugh and everybody could see it. As Riley finally passed the Bulls and disappeared, Jackson could not help himself any longer. He laughed. Actually, it was more like a giggle. They still cannot play nice, Jackson.."