A Basketball Handbook

            There's many different sports to participate in. There's also many reason why people throughout the world are choosing basketball as their favorite past-time. Although each sport is unique and provides a means for physical activity, basketball is about the most physically demanding. Playing the game of basketball requires physical contact, but not as much as football. Also, basketball usually involves throwing and catching a ball, yet the ball doesn't normally travel as fast as a baseball. Further, basketball predominantly involves hand-eye coordination, whereas soccer requires mostly eye-foot coordination. However, with the exception of volleyball, other sports don't require players to elevate nearly as frequently.

            Subsequently, basketball requires a multitude of physical abilities. There's lateral movement, forward movement, backwards movement, stopping, acceleration, spinning, reversing, faking, feinting, jabbing, picking, cutting, blocking out, as well as many other abilities necessary to perform effectively in the sport of basketball. In fact, when Dr. James Naismith invented the game many years age, he probably had no idea that it would've evolved into the sport that it is today.

            Today basketball is truly a phenomenal sport. There's seven foot players that can handle the basketball with the style and grace of many of the smaller players. There are small players with the ability to jump and compete with players much taller. There are overweight players getting up and down the court with the lean players. There are skinny players unafraid to take the basketball into the lane where contact is likely to occur. The sport keeps evolving and rules periodically needed to change along the way to accommodate some of it's most dominant players, such as Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

            There’s many reasons to passionately love the game of basketball. Initially, it was invented by Dr. James Naismith to provide a means for people to continue being physically active during the winter. Now the game is played the year around. Not only does the sport provide a means for physical activity, but it has provided countless individuals with a means to educate themselves and to ultimately become more productive as citizens. For those that were fortunate enough to play the sport professionally, the benefits are even greater.  

            Many basketball players develop into complete ballplayers. They’re players that perform several aspects of the game well. The complete basketball players perform well on both ends of the basketball court. They usually are fundamentally sound and understand how the game should be played. Whereas, other players develop into specialist that usually can perform an aspect of the game very well, such as offense or defense, passing or rebounding, ball-handling or shooting, etc.

            Usually basketball players develop skills on the playground or in the gym. Basketball players have inherit abilities that can’t always be taught. More often than not,  skills and abilities are acquired through practice and experience. Consequently, having a good work ethic is usually a vital aspect of a basketball players development. Even if a player did inherit the ability to jump extremely high or run extremely fast, players that work extremely hard at becoming better basketball players may eventually gain an advantage, especially long-term.

            Skill development in basketball usually require hours or maybe years of hard work. I love listening at some of the stories that many basketball players tell about how they became proficient at certain skills. For example, Isiah Thomas once said that he used to like to dribble a basketball nearly everywhere that he went. He would dribble the ball to the basketball court and back home from the basketball court. Whereas, Nick Anderson and Devin Harris each reportedly stated that they would shovel snow from their neighborhood basketball courts during the winter in order to play the game. Richard Jefferson has stated that he would play eight to nine hours a day during the summers in Phoenix, Arizona and, of course, that's a very hot climate. One of my favorite players to watch, Magic Johnson, stated that he would practice making the game winning shot while imagining that a top defender from the NBA was guarding him at the time. Those were just a few highlights of the many stories that basketball players have experienced while learning to play the game.

             Many players have different but similarly interesting stories to tell about how they acquired the skills to perform well and become successful in basketball. As for myself, I grew up in Chicago, Illinois and developed a passion for the game of basketball at an early age. I would play in the neighborhood playgrounds. I would play in the school gymnasium. I would play in recreation centers or anywhere there was a ball and hoop. I simply loved to play the game and it kept me out of trouble. I played on the public league championship team my senior year in high school. I played on the junior college level in Iowa and redshirted one year on the Marquette Warrior team that featured Butch Lee, Bernard Toone, and Jerome Whitehead that won it’s first 31 games in 1977-78. They were the defending NCAA champions and won there first 31 games of that season.

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