I love basketball. Always have. Watch hundreds of games every year. Listen to NBA radio in the car everyday. Even counseled some basketball players. Everyone in and around basketball knows what’s going on with the poor quality and fundamentals of the game. You need superstars. So they start grooming kids at 9 and 10-years-old who show size or talent in a thing called AAU.
Superstar-ism
It has ruined basketball. It doesn’t teach basketball. It teaches superstarism. It puts a child in a bubble. Everyone is hoping and waiting to see if he is the next Kobe or Lebron. Micheal or Magic. Let me tell you something. I’ve been watching and playing basketball for 50 years. Those guys along with a couple others like Bird and Steve Nash are one in a billion. That isn’t learned and groomed. That talent and drive and determination is in their DNA. It wasn’t taught at some special school. It is the mystery of life itself.
[clickToTweet tweet=”‘When teacher salaries in this country are what he makes during a timeout.” -B.F. @askbobforrest” quote=”“When teacher salaries in this country are what he makes during a timeout.” -B.F.”]
The Franchise Superstar
This brings me to the franchise superstars. The other day one athlete had some sort of emergency he decided he had to attend to and didn’t show up for an NBA game. That’s fine. Whatever. But he didn’t contact anyone. Not his coach. Not the team. Not a phone call. Not a text. This, mind you, is after a whole ugly situation over the summer that ended up in court. But I won’t get into that cause it’s so dehumanizing. But anyway. Nothing. He just doesn’t show up and everyone is shocked. Shocked? Why are you shocked when he has lived in a superstarism incorporated bubble since he was a kid? Really? When he makes ungodly amounts of money for playing basketball, when teacher salaries in this country are what he makes during a timeout. Shocked? I’m not.
The Good News!
What I am so happily surprised by is how professional and what great citizens and dads so many NBA players are. Because they all have lived superstar-bubble-life since they were kids. How did they end up so solid? That’s what I’m interested in. Wish there was more media about the outstanding things these guys do instead of the three day’s news cycle about athletes not showing up. Didn’t surprise me. Didn’t shock me.
Just another day in the baby bubble that has become the NBA.
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