CAREERS IN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL doc

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOWTHE EAS I EST AND MOST HELP FUL THING YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR SELF OUT ONthe road to a ca reer in bas ket ball is quite sim ply to play the game.. Ac cord ing to the A

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

PRO FES SIONAL BAS KET BALL IS THE KIND OF CA REER THAT YOU DREAM ABOUThav ing when you are a child For years and years, boys and girls haveimag 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 bethe 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 Theymay feel that they just aren’t good enough They may feelthat theresim 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 ispos 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 thiscom 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 giveyou a glimpse at the prep a ra tion, ef fort, ded i ca tion, per sis tence, andpsy cho log i cal for ti tude needed to step onto the court in the big

leagues

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW

THE EAS I EST AND MOST HELP FUL THING YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR SELF OUT ONthe 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 teamsfor 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 feelfor the team dy namic, and get used to be ing a team player Prac ticevar i ous shots on your own, like the free-throw, the three-pointer, andthe 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 utethe most to im prov ing your game and thus your chances some day toplay in the pros

How ever, play ing is far from the only thing you can do You canread books by and about for mer play ers and coaches, as they have alot to share about the road to the pros as well as what the life of apro fes sional player is like You can also read how-to books and watchskill-build ing vid eos to learn new things that might help you mas tertech niques for use on the court

You should cer tainly look into at tend ing a skill-build ing clinic orcamp 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

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 ingphys i cal ed u ca tion at a Chris tian school in the win ter of that yearwhen 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 adaptout door games like la crosse or soc cer for in door use, but these ef fortsfailed 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, whichhap 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 linesfor 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 “Noshoul der ing, hold ing, push ing, trip ping, or strik ing in any way theper son of an op po nent shall be al lowed.” The eighth rule dealt withscor ing, the ninth with out-of-bounds pol i cies, the tenth and elev enthwith 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 theUnited States Pressed for a name for this hot new sport, the doc torpassed on the mon i ker Naismith ball and opted to dub the gamebas 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 BallLeague, 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 ranfor one sea son in 1899-00 Sev eral other leagues also started play inthe 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 settsBas ket ball League (1903-04), and the West ern Penn syl va nia Bas ket ballLeague (1903-04)

The Birth of the NBA

By the late 1940s, the pop u lar ity of pro fes sional bas ket ball reachedsuch 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 theBas 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 isgen 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 canBas ket ball League stars and col le giate play ers and took the court forthe first time in No vem ber of 1946

The league’s first game oc curred on No vem ber 1 of that year, asthe 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 a37-29 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 byDick 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 Gottliebtopped 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 tothe 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 30home 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 theWest 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 JoeFulks, 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 theWeb site www.NBA.com, high lighted by a 19-18 night mare be tweenthe 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,

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 pointsper game that sea son – an in crease of nearly 14 points per game overthe pre vi ous year! In 1994-95, the Boston Celtics be came the firstteam in NBA his tory to av er age 100 points per game for an en tiresea 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 tieslike 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 hoopsleague 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 ersand fu ture pro fes sional bas ket ball stars Both the NBA and the NBDLcon 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 cesssto ries in all of bas ket ball his tory was that of a Ca na dian women’steam called the Ed mon ton Com mer cial Grad u ates, or “Grads.” TheGrads were a six-player team that toured are nas around the worldfrom 1915 to 1940 Dur ing their barn storm ing years, they won 502out 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 estteam that ever stepped out on a floor.”

Even if Naismith felt they were the best, the Grads were far fromthe only barn storm ing fe male team that gained pop u lar ity in the firsthalf of the 20th cen tury In 1936, Mis souri-na tive C.M Olsen formed awomen’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 themon 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 thecoun try, play ing against men’s teams and re main ing in ex is tence formore than 50 years

The la dies took their first crack at an es tab lished pro fes sionalleague 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 cagoHus tle against the Mil wau kee Does The first bas ket came just sec ondsinto the game, as Joanie Smith of the Does sank a jump shot to giveher 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 92-87win

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, therewas im mense tur moil on many of the ex ist ing fran chises, and me diacov er age was ei ther sparse or scath ing Sev eral teams were crit i cizedfor 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 waslos 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, itsaw 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 theWomen’s Amer i can Bas ket ball As so ci a tion, which also played just onesea 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 ingprior to its first sea son

There have been many other women’s leagues that have comeand 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 theleague made deals with stars Sheryl Swoops and Rebecca Lobo Eightteams were es tab lished for the first sea son – the Char lotte Sting, theCleve land Rockers, the Hous ton Comets and the New York Lib erty inthe 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 andcame on June 21, 1997 Sparks guard Penny Toler was the first player

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 ablePlayer, 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 Thegame was held at Mad i son Square Gar den, and Lisa Leslie took homeMVP hon ors as she led the West ern Con fer ence to a 79-61 win overthe 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 ESPNchan nel Ac cord ing to the league’s of fi cial Web site, WNBA games arebroad 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 atrav el ing or barn storm ing club, al though such teams are some whatrare 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 fromcity to city on a reg u lar ba sis for road games

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 Youshould also al ready be in ti mately fa mil iar with the var i ous workplacesthat 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 yourown 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 abetter phy sique These ac tiv i ties may get more time-con sum ing andmore elab o rate as you move from high-school hoops through col legeand into the pro ranks, but they will al ways be an es sen tial part ofyour 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 highschool courts, do dif fer some what from their NCAA and prep levelcoun ter parts, and since pro fes sional bas ket ball play ers spend much oftheir 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 and50ft 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 thefree-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 andWNBA 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; aback board that mea sures 6 x 4; a pair of side lines and a pair of endlines; 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 longcoach ing boxes, one lo cated be hind each side line

PLAYING THE GAME

OF COURSE, YOUR PRI MARY RE SPON SI BIL ITY IN THIS CA REER IS TO PLAY

bas ket ball Ev ery thing you do, from weight train ing and car dio vas cu lar

ex er cise to study ing game tapes and prac tic ing scor ing drills, is donewith the goal of mak ing you a better bas ket ball player How ever, whatmany as pir ing pro fes sional play ers fail to re al ize is that bas ket ball it self con tains many in di vid ual tasks that need to be com pleted dur ing thecourse of a game Each of these fun da men tals is part of be ing a

bas ket ball player, and you should prac tice and be come highly skilled at them all

Shooting It should go with out say ing that shoot ing the ball andmak ing bas kets is the sin gle most es sen tial part of the sport As Dr

Ralph L Pim writes in his book Winning Bas ket ball, “Shoot ing is the

most im por tant fun da men tal in the game of bas ket ball Re gard less ofhow well a team does ev ery thing else, if it can not score points it willnot be suc cess ful.” Thus, it is es sen tial that bas ket ball play ers honetheir skills in a va ri ety of shots, in clud ing jump shots, free throws,lay-ups, and three-point ers

A suc cess ful shot is a me chan i cally sound one When shoot ing,your feet should be ap prox i mately shoul der-width apart and pointed

to ward the bas ket Cen ter the hand you shoot with (your strong hand)

on the bas ket ball and place your weak hand on the side to help

bal ance and guide the shot Cock your wrist back slightly, but not allthe way It should be slanted, not flat Keep the el bow of your

shoot ing arm pointed to ward the bas ket Con cen trate, fo cus on thebas ket and avoid dis trac tions Thrust your wrist and fin gers for ward as though they were a cat a pult, and make sure that you fully ex tend your

el bow on the fol low-through This tech nique works well for nearly

ev ery type of shot

Passing Of course, you won’t be the only one scor ing all of the time That’s where pass ing co mes in It is es sen tial that a good bas ket ballplayer has the abil ity to find open re ceiv ers, an tic i pate the move ment

of team mates, and then de ter mine whether or not they are ready totake pos ses sion of the ball You should also be able to quickly an a lyzewhether or not they have a clear and makable shot

Once you find a re ceiver who is open and in po si tion to score, youneed to give the player a good pass Not only does that mean mak ingsure the pass is not in ter cepted by a de fender, but mak ing sure that itreaches your team mate while still open, and that the ball is de liv ered

so that lit tle time elapses be tween the re cep tion and the shot at tempt The re ceiver needs to be able to take the pass and shoot quickly, andthere is lit tle room for er ror.

Ball-Handling There is an old bas ket ball ad age that says you mustnever put the ball on the floor un less you have a good rea son to

drib ble That said, you will of ten need to drib ble in or der to cre ate apass ing lane or shoot ing op por tu nity, so you should be able to han dlethe ball well The first rule of ball-han dling is to keep your head up.You should never have to look at the ball; it should feel like part ofyour body To cre ate space and avoid turn overs, al ways use the handfar thest from the de fender guard ing you Never halt a drib ble un lessyou can do some thing with the ball, like take a shot or pass it to ateam mate Also, use your fin gers to con trol the ball when drib bling,not the palm of your hand This will give you more con trol over theball and will make er rant drib bles less likely

Rebounding Not ev ery shot will go in, so you need to be able to get

in po si tion to col lect the misses for your team Re bounding re quiresboth ef fort and proper tech nique Of ten times, the player who trieshard est is the one who gets the ball, so al ways make sure to at tack the boards with your best ef fort You should al ways as sume that ev eryshot will be missed and re act ac cord ingly Move to ward the bas ket

im me di ately af ter the shot is taken Get your hands up and pre pare toleap for the ball Use your body like a road block, and place your self

be tween the bas ket and your op po nent (this is called “box ing-out”).Once you are in po si tion, jump with ev ery thing you have, fight for theball, and make sure you pro tect it once you land

Defense Some ex perts feel that the most im por tant part of the sport

of bas ket ball is the de fen sive side, and it is hard to ar gue that point In pro fes sional bas ket ball, just about ev ery player has world-class

shoot ing abil ity Of ten times, the dif fer ence be tween vic tory and

de feat is keep ing these play makers from hav ing a chance to take ormake the shot There is no magic drill that helps a player be comestron ger on de fense Playing good de fense re quires hard work,

per sis tence, ded i ca tion, prep a ra tion and in tel li gence

You have to know your op po nent’s strengths, weak nesses, andten den cies, and you need to make a su per hu man ef fort to pre ventthem from play ing their game Te nac ity is a de fen sive player’s bestfriend How ever, you also need to take care not to be come too

ag gres sive, lest you com mit too many fouls and be dis qual i fied from

the game Play hard, play quick, but play smart too, be cause you

can not help your team if you’re left sit ting on the bench dur ing crunch time

PLAYING YOUR POSITION

IDEALLY, A PRO FES SIONAL BAS KET BALL PLAYER IS PRO FI CIENT IN ALL AS PECTS OFthe game How ever, they need to be mas ters of each task Bas ket ballplay ers as sume a va ri ety of po si tions on the court, and their in-game

du ties vary de pend ing upon which po si tion or po si tions they are

as signed to play dur ing the con test If you can’t mas ter ev ery pos si blejob of a bas ket ball player, at least mas ter those re quired in the

po si tion you plan to play Af ter all, even for mer NBA Most Valu ablePlayer and all-world cen ter Shaquille O’Neill has weak nesses – hisfree-throw shoot ing is far from stel lar

Guards Guards are charged with bring ing the ball from the

op po nent’s end of the court to their team’s end, and will be ex pected

to do a lot of drib bling and con trol ling the ball to suc cess fully

com plete this task They are also con sid ered to be the leader, or

‘quar ter back” in foot ball terms, of the of fense As such, they must

re lay in for ma tions and plays from the coaches on the side lines andcom mu ni cate them to their team mates, usu ally through hand sig nals.They must also find open play ers and de liver the ball to them

De fen sively, they cover the other team’s best shoot ers and be cause oftheir quick ness and hand-eye co or di na tion, are of ten asked to steal, or slap the ball away, from the play ers they cover Lastly, guards are of ten asked to score from a great dis tance, and thus should be skilled at thejump shot and the three-pointer

Centers Cen ters are the big men and women in the mid dle They are

ex pected to be a dom i nat ing force in the low post, and should be talland strong in or der to be most ef fec tive Cen ters are the play ers whouse their size to get close to the bas ket and score from the in side They are ex pected to re bound ev ery missed shot and get it to an other

mem ber of their team (usu ally a guard) so that the team can set up for

a scor ing at tempt

An other key duty of the cen ter is to pre vent the other team’splay ers from get ting close to the bas ket for a shot Fail ing that, cen ters are asked to block shots, which re quires them to plot the ball’s

tra jec tory, tim ing their jump, and hit ting the ball be fore it reaches the

bas ket and be fore it be gins its de cent to ward the hoop (which would

re sult in a goal tend ing rules vi o la tion)

Forwards For wards have a lit tle bit of both guards and cen ters inthem Like cen ters, they are ex pected to be able to get po si tion in thelow post, score from the in side, and re bound the ball Like guards,they need to be able to hit jump shots on a reg u lar ba sis and should

be able to sink the oc ca sional three-point bas ket De fen sively, they areusu ally asked to cover other for wards Like cen ters, they are ex pected

to pre vent the play ers they guard from get ting close to the bas ket.How ever, they also need to be able to guard against the long shot aswell For wards need to be ver sa tile, as sum ing many dif fer ent roles

de pend ing on a given sit u a tion Players who are nor mally for wards are some times asked to shift to cen ter in a three-guard for ma tion, or ifthe nor mal cen ter is for some rea son un able to par tic i pate In short, afor ward is ex pected to be a very ver sa tile player

OFF THE COURT

IT SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED THAT THE PRO FES SIONAL BAS KET BALL PLAYER’S

work-re lated re spon si bil i ties do not end once they leave the floor.There are many other im por tant du ties they must per form

They must keep in top phys i cal con di tion through weight train ingand car dio vas cu lar ex er cise

They must meet with and give in ter views to mem bers of the

me dia, even if they have an off night or lose They are ex pected tospend at least some time meet ing, speak ing with, and sign ing

au to graphs for fans

They are ex pected to be on their best be hav ior at all times Proath letes are thought of as role mod els They are re spected and adored

by young sters ev ery where and they are ex pected to con duct

them selves in a man ner wor thy of such re spect and ad o ra tion

PLAYERS TELL THEIR OWN STORIES

I Was Voted One of the Top 50 Players in NBA His tory “I played pro fes sional bas ket ball from 1960 to 1974 as a mem ber of both the Cincinnati Royals and the Mil wau kee Bucks In 1961, I was voted the Rookie

of the Year, and three sea sons later, I be came the first guard ever voted the NBA’s Most Valu able Player I was also named to the NBA All-Star Team in 12 con sec u tive sea sons (1960-61 to

1971-72), and was the first player in league his tory to av er age a tri ple-dou ble in 1961-62 (30.8 points per game, 11.4 as sists, 12.5

re bounds).

What does it take to be come a pro bas ket ball player? In

gen eral, my an swer is that you have to take the game se ri ously and com mit to de vel op ing the nec es sary skills through prac tice on your own – prac tice that is con ducted ac cord ing to a plan and pro vides met rics for mea sur ing im prove ment As you can imag ine, pro fes sional bas ket ball is not a ca reer where you just de cide you’ll

do it, so the usual rules for prep a ra tion and job search do not nec es sar ily ap ply.

I talk about these things in my book, The Art of Bas ket ball,

which I co-wrote with Mi chael O’Daniel and is avail able at my Web site www.thebigo.com

I was for tu nate enough to grow up in In di a nap o lis, an

en vi ron ment where peo ple took bas ket ball se ri ously At an early age, I saw that if I wanted to play with older, more ex pe ri enced play ers, I’d have to prac tice on my own to bring my skills up to their level They were n’t run ning a clinic, and they were n’t about

to let any body on the court who would slow them down.

That was my first les son: The best way to im prove is to play with peo ple who are better than you are I played against some great play ers, and de vel oped my game in re sponse to what they were do ing For ex am ple, I got tired of get ting my jump shot

blocked and had to fig ure out a way to get the shot off against taller and stron ger play ers I never thought I was that spe cial; the min ute you got the idea you were the best in your class, some one else would come along and ‘take you to school.’