Assault on the Courts :: essays research papers

Assault on the CourtsFighting has become a habitual event seen in professional basketball. at that place has been a consistent decline in professionalism and morals predominately in young athletes. Before the Ron Artest event, most players were idolized as gods and portrayed as todays heroes. However, a shocking phenomenon has risen as newer and younger athletes have entered the new NBA. Professionalism, morals, and integrity have taken a back seat to greed and selfishness. On November 1st, 2004, during the Pacers vs. Pistons game, the game of basketball changed forever. A drunken fan in the stands launched a beer at Indiana Pacer, Ron Artest. 67 Ron Artest rushed the stands, brutally beating an exculpated bystander. Around the same time as the Ron Artest ordeal, there began a slew of unacceptable occurrences of fighting and foul play amongst basketball players. The reasons for these changes in behavior await to have intricate and distinct underlying reasons. These behaviors comp romise the attitude our country is built on. The behavior of todays athlete is a direct formulation on the attitude of todays youth. The total disregard for authority is becoming the norm. Respect for teachers in all directs of education is at an all-time low. mavin of the most significant reasons for this occurrence is due to the fact that players are celebrities and feel invincible they assume that they will be able to escape punishment proposed by courts and coaches. How have players attitudes changed so drastically? The basketball players, who make it into the NBA, have been pampered for the majority of their career going all the way back to high school. Coaches have given over them special treatment, because they have more talent and enable the coaches to win games. College coaches often provide these favored players with just about anything that they wish. Egos are constantly stroked at the college level to try and convince these players to stay in school. Why? Because mone y is the bottom line and these players bring in the mighty dollar. There is extreme pressure from the alumni who present millions of dollars a year to big time universities to win. Presidents of these universities then apply pressure to athletic directors to hire coaches that win. The compensation for these college coaches has risen substantially in the past few years. This increases the pressure on coaches to win and win now, thus more coaches are sacrificing morals and education to accommodate the player that helps them succeed, at any cost necessary.