Swish! That is the sound of LeBron James and Kevin Durant trading buckets. Since they both possess freak athleticism and lethal scoring ability, LeBron James and Kevin Durant’s statistics are excellent for players their age. Due to his mastery of the game, LeBron James had a head start in the NBA. In fact, he was the number one recruit in the nation coming out of highschool. Therefore, NBA scouts wanted him to head straight to the NBA draft after graduation. He is also four years older than Kevin Durant, so his point total is higher than Kevin Durant’s. LeBron James’s point total is 30,072 points. On the other hand, Kevin Durant was the number two recruit in the nation coming out of high school. Kevin Durant played college basketball for one year at the University of Texas at Austin, and he is four years younger than LeBron James. Therefore, his point total is lower than LeBron James’s. Kevin Durant’s point total is only 20,222 points. Although it seems like Kevin Durant is far behind LeBron James in total points, he is really not. In fact, LeBron James had only 2,948 more points than Kevin Durant at the same age. Therefore, in the same season and at the same age, LeBron James had 23,170 points compared to Kevin Durant and his 20,222 points. Despite Kevin Durant being approximately 10,000 points behind LeBron James, he has been the NBA’s scoring champion a remarkable four times.Yet for LeBron James, he has only been the NBA’s scoring champion once. Kevin Durant’s…
As seen by the Cavs-Warriors game on Christmas, the Warriors need Curry to be productive for the Warriors to beat the Cavs. Curry is third on the team in shot attempts (Kevin and Klay are tied for 1st with 17.1). Stephen Curry has fallen into the “super team effect”, which is basically when people discredit your play because you’re on a team that has multiple good players. It’s hard for Curry’s legacy not to take a hit when the Warriors are blowing out teams constantly and other players like Durant (multiple 30 point games) and Klay Thompson (60 point game) are having more noticeable games.…
Research has shown that Stephen Curry might be a better 3 point shooter than Larry Bird. Despite this claim, some people believe that Larry Bird is better. This essay will explain that Curry is better than Bird.…
A shooter with the handles that stephen curry possess are not even supposed to exist. If you're a shooter that's the only thing you are supposed to do, curry is breaking the barriers of the game some are saying he's ruining the game of basketball his former coach Mark Jackson said. “he's hurt the game,What I mean by that is that I go into these high school gyms, I watch these kids and the first thing they do is they run to the three-point line.” Stephen curry made 200 contested off the dribble 3pt shots that's more than 26 NBA teams and made 43% percent of them. He was the only player that took more than 100 of them shots to make more than 40% of them. That would make him #1 in shooting off the dribble in nba history from the perimeter or…
The reigning NBA Champs are still as strong as ever with the first big three in the league. Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan, are still going strong being leaders for their team. These men might are in their thirties, but they are still playing like they are in their mid twenties. Other than the big three, the Spurs have some of the best offensive players in the league. Players like Danny Green, Boris Diaw, and NBA Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard. These young men bring a lot to the Spurs franchise with speed, scoring, and defense. This team is stacked with talent and each person on the team contributes to every win. But every win is from listening to a legend on the court. The head coach Gregg Popovich. Popovich has coached the Spurs over the last 16 years("Gregg popovich," 2014). He has lead the team to four national championships and has been named NBA coach of the month 12 times in his career("Gregg popovich," 2014). Popovich’s offensive strategy is simple: make a lot of passes and cut across the court while another teammate sets a screen for you. In other words a play the Spurs perform is the ball is passed six to seven times before a shot is took. One wing player will cut across the court to the corner three point line. As the wing player cuts across the court, Tim Duncan or Boris Diaw will set a pick for the wing player so he can get…
Kobe “Black Mamba” Bryant, Kevin “Big Ticket” Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Rashad Lewis, Amar’e Stoudemire, and LeBron “King” James are some of the legendary basketball players to be drafted directly from high school to the NBA, one can only imagine what other talents might have emerged if the high school game was more like the professional league. A regulation shot clock would make the game more enjoyable for fans and closer to the professional or collegiate game, along with the fact that several states have already petitioned for use of a shot clock. The shot clock would help modern day high caliber high school players prepare for college or professional basketball. Players in the new “shot clock…
Some basketball players have strange free throw shooting routines. There are a number of reasons why they perform this act: they're meant to simply have a good grip of the ball (it can get real wet at times during the game), to establish a signature style, to improve free throw shooting, or being plainly superstitious. Who are these players? Let's check it out!…
Steve Silverman has been covering sports since 1980. Silverman is an award-winning writer. He reveals a few simple changes of the game of basketball from the year 1891 to present day. He tells us the difference in the early years, shot clock rules, the pace of the game and three- point shooting. He provides information to inform students and other audiences about the history of the game and a few key facts on how it changed.…
Whenever anybody thinks about the game of basketball, the NBA or sports in general, the first name that usually comes to mind is Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. Throughout his career he scored over 32,000 points, won six NBA titles, six NBA Finals MVP awards and five NBA regular season MVP awards. He undoubtedly will go down as the greatest player in the history of not only basketball but all of sports. Every time a big name enters the NBA Draft, everybody always asks “Is this kid the next Michael Jordan?” Michael has always been the measuring stick for NBA stars. Even today you can see debates daily on TV about how current stars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James compare to Jordan. The argument that Jemele Hil from ESPN.com raised…
This emphasis on character growth and the development of a man into a gentleman, is what influenced James Naismith to create the game of Basketball in 1891 (Harris, 2014, p.1). Moreover, men would desire to play it for benefits other than just physical activity. Loyalty, self control, self sacrifice and teamwork, the foundations of Christianity and altruistic Christian manhood, were the moral principles that basketball originally promoted (Carroll, 2003, p. 197).…
As the year was moving on, Kobe realized that he had to give it up to Dwight Howard in the paint and move the ball around a lot more. When Kobe realized that his team was not doing so well he started passing the ball more and the Lakers were beginning to win games. After about a month into the season Steve Nash came back from his knee injury and was moving the ball around again. The Lakers were doing well, at least until it happened again.…
The national pastime aka baseball started integration with Jackie Robinson on the Brooklyn Dodgers. Every team integrated at their own pace, but after it was all said and done some real talent shined through it all. “Integration thrust some of the game’s greatest stars into the big leagues limelight,...” (Phil Rogers). Another sport that we love today was in the mists of change as well. Basketball’s biggest change during this time was the 24 second shot clock, this change brought back a huge audience since the scores were now getting higher. In the shot clocks first year the points per game went from 79.5 to 93.1 (¨Sports History¨). Some of the biggest names in both of the sports came about in these times. For baseball you have Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Mickey Mantle, and many more. For basketball the top talent went two players in particular Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, with Bill being a team player and Wilt being all about the personal stats (¨Sports History¨). Even though sports went through many changes in the 1950s, sports still remained as a popular pastimes and they started fine tuning the rules to make them more enjoyable for…
As an illustration, Kobe Bryant is one of the best N.B.A. players there ever was. He accomplished all of that by working really hard to get good and working at his career. He dedicated all of his time every day to basketball so he could perfect his shot. He retired, but he…
The National Basketball Association, formed in 1949, has grown from an unknown 11-team league formed by hockey team owners for an unpopular sport, to one of the most popular sports ever in a league of 30 different teams that can be followed year-round. It is also not only amazing how the league has grown, but how it has helped black people become accepted in the North American media. While people still believe that racism is a problem in the NBA, racism in the NBA is disappearing because there are better relationships between players and owners, there is more equality in NBA front offices, and black NBA players have better lifestyles off the court.…
Right now, the NBA is considered an urban, inner-city sport dominated by African Americans. This perception is enforced by the media’s constant attention to players who defy what white Americans consider, “normal.” This image broke through during the early 1990s when here at the University of Michigan, a brash and flashy group of five freshman debuted. They were dubbed The Fab Five.…