CU Sports Management Discussion
Description
1-Case of the NBA: Not Rags to Riches
Media tend to stereotype Black athletes as poor, fatherless, and growing up in challenging circumstances. The images many of us have of professional athletes in the NBA are those of players like Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony who grew up in some of the most challenging neighborhoods in the United States, where poverty and social ills ran wild. These athletes were able to focus on the sport of basketball and elevate themselves to become some of the most admired and highly paid athletes in the world, despite their lower socioeconomic upbringing.
The stereotype is no longer true for NBA athletes, if it ever was, who today are often the offspring of former professional athletes or have grown up in a middle- to upper-class household (Keating 2011). In the 1960s and 70s, more than 90 percent of NBA athletes were from urban areas, many growing up in housing projects. Now, many current NBA players have fathers who were former professional basketball players. Stephen and Seth Curry are following in the steps of Dell Curry, Kobe Bryant is following in the steps of Joe Bryant, and Luke Walton is following in the steps of his father Bill Walton (Eger 2016). These players and others grew up in the suburbs.
We, and the media, must open our minds to understanding how the intersection of race and class play a role in sporting success in the NBA. While cultural differences may influence our choice of sport and our access, it is important to understand how socioeconomic status can play a role in our access to certain sports and our ability to excel as a competitive level.
Questions:
- In the 1960s and 70s more than ___ percent of NBA athletes were from urban areas, many growing up in housing project.
- Current NBA players are more likely to have a(n) ______ upbringing.
- Research Lebron James and Stephen Curry. Discuss and share similarities and differences on how they grew up and how each was influenced to play basketball. Why do you think they were both able to excel in the sport?
Case-2
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Case 2-Paralympics and Olympics: Is It Fair to Compete in Both? The Paralympics is an international sporting event that takes place a few weeks after the Summer and Winter Olympics. Athletes with physical disabilities are evaluated by panels composed of two or three classifiers who determine the level of impairment before the athlete is eligible to compete in the Paralympics. The impairment categories are impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length differences, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, visual impairment, and a specified degree of intellectual impairment (World Para Athletics 2020). Athletes are assigned the category in which they will compete against a competitor who has a similar type of impairment.Since 1984, Paralympic athletes have been able to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics; Zahra Nemati of Iran competed in archery, and Melissa Tapper of Australia competing in table tennis in both the Olympics and Paralympics in Rio. Although a dual Olympian and Paralympian has yet to medal in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it is a possibility in the future.Many Paralympic athletes are able to use new technology to help them in their sport and with their physical limitations. For instance, track and field athletes who have had leg amputations can use prosthetic legs so that they are able to run and compete. Athletes such as Orazio Fagone from Italy, Natalia Partyka from Poland, and Natalie du Toit from South Africa have used athletic prosthetics to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics. The majority of these Olympic and Paralympic athletes use a flex-foot prosthetic leg, referred to by many as the Cheetah. The use of bio-medical engineering has allowed scientists to create a light-weight (less than 2 pounds each) carbon fiber J shaped leg that athletes can attach to their bodies, enabling them to compete against able-bodied runners.Paralympic athletes competing in both the Olympics and Paralympics have sparked some controversy. There has also been debate about the advantages that some Paralympic athletes have in comparison to able-bodied athletes because of their use of manufactured prosthetics. In the case of track and field and the flex-foot prosthetic, some argue that track-and-field Paralympic athletes have an unfair advantage in the Olympics because of the lighter weight of the prosthetic and the fact that the athletes do not have to fear problems such as cramping or tears to their lower extremities (i.e., ankles, the Achilles tendon, toes) that can be debilitating and game changing for athletes. And some feel that technological advances have created or will one day create a prosthetic that will enable Paralympic track athletes to be faster than able-bodied athletes.While track and field seems to get the majority of attention in this area, athletes in other sports use prosthetic hands and arms so that they can compete in their sport. Without the use of certain prosthetics, athletes would not be able to compete at all, let alone as Olympians and Paralympians. However, even though current research shows that technology does not give the athlete an unfair advantage, the issue as to whether technology helps is still debated (Simpson 2012).Questions:
- Should Paralympic athletes be allowed to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics? Explain your position and give three reasons for your opinion.
- The United State Olympic and Paralympic Committee joined forces to become the USOPC. Discuss your opinion on the change and research why it may or may not be a good idea.
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