FIBA AND GLAMOUR

The Fiba World Championship is about to start real soon, therefore it's only appropriate that a little something is dedicated to ballin'. The USA has a pretty strong team this year so despite their being seeded 2nd behind Argentina, expect them to dominate. I've strayed away from basketball over the past year and in some way that may be partly due to my association with Hip Hop. It bugs me a little that ballers try and adopt this 'cool' and 'down' image through Hip Hop. No doubt the culture had a big influence on basketball as a sport. Baggy shorts and the swagger every player attempts to walk and talk with comes as a direct result of the Hip Hop culture. I think someone once said something along the lines of 'every basketball player secretly wants to be a rapper.' That may be a slight exaggeration but the sentiment is to some extent true. I'm getting tired of seeing ballers use this whole inner city, 'cool', 'hip' culture as a means of marketing, especially when many of these guys derive from the burbs just like everyone else. Don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of many Nike ads and Nike clothing in general but, it bugs me when guys try and force a certain swagger on themselves just to come across like a cool cat. Marketing campaigns or ads that force a Hip Hop swagger on to a player purely because he's black will rarely come off authentic. I guess what I'm trying to get a here is that, most emcees in their youth wanted to be ballers. Yet once they make the big time as a rapper, that's it, they're content. Whereas most ballers that make it to the league, still idolise big time rappers, heck some of them go to the extent of making albums (no need to name names). The fact that all their money can build them a studio, doesn't equate to them producing a 5 mic album, unfortunately for them. I just think ballers in general need to pay more respect to a culture (hop) that gave the league it's street etiquette and cred. It added style and smoothness to the game, style that most players seem to think they were raised with or even created.

I know a couple of serious ballers and they seems to think it's their right to walk, talk and dress a certain way purely because they are basketball players. They may even from time to time look down on someone of perhaps a different race or stature to them, when in fact that person knows more of Hip Hop culture and 'swagger' than they do. I just don't understand why. If they don't know jack about Hip Hop as a musical outlet or culture, then why in the hell do they feel they have to act 'cool' 'laid-back' and 'down' with Hip Hop fashion? What because they're Black or Latino? They'll never be as 'cool' (I've used that word a lot here) as their favourite rappers. Maybe they should just stop acting like groupies and do themselves since a whole bunch of young men and women look up to them. Hip Hop is a movement all on it's own, and all though I think to an extent it's ill that basketball has assimilated Hip Hop elements in to the sport both on and off the court, it's just merged a little too much for my liking. To the point where basketball players who are doing quite well for themselves, I'm talking college players etc.... think they can converse with me, or even try to school me,on a Hip Hop level. Fall back, a ball and some baggy shorts won't tell you the difference between Lupe and Lil Jon. Shout outs to all the honest Hip Hop head ballers though!

For The Love of The Game from Nice Kicks on Vimeo.

I was once the kinda guy that would be right up on videos like these. Shot nicely with a quality (in this case HD, goddammit I need one) camera and with the cleanliness that only comes with a Nike styled commercial. New York City is usually the perfect setting and the music is always on point if not inspirational. Yet this type of layout seems to be wearing a little thin. It's tedious to hear players constantly talk about how they 'made it,' especially when quite often there's some huge glamourisation occurring. 'The basketball court was my escape' is a favourite or, 'Practice would finish, but I'd stay behind to run suicides' another. This is all well and good and I may be coming across like Uncle Pessimistico here but I feel, to a certain extent kids are being misled. Sure when you reach the final stages of basketball (or any sport's) adolescence - that time when you have to decide if you're going to pursue this as a career - that's when things should start to become really serious. For me, if you're not walking around with a ball everywhere, constantly playing in the house and literally playing (unwittingly practicing) all the time, then the sport isn't for you. You won't make it. What D.Wade and Melo are describing in their up-bringing is not a tenacious work-ethic (although in certain player's cases it is), it's a love for the game matched by few others. Constantly going out to the courts wasn't done in an attempt to 'get better,' at least not until they were way in to their teens. No, at first this was just subconscious love for basketball. Too many kids believe that if they go out and shoot so many shots a day then they can really make it. That mentality is a bad sign already. Fact of the matter is, if you have to consciously think about going to a court and shooting at such a young age then you could be destined for failure. It's impossible to continue and exceed at something you have to force upon yourself. Unless you're born 8ft tall, it's likely you'll need to really love this game in order to pursue it as a career. However this leads on to understanding whether you really do 'love' the game. If a basketball movie or clip inspires you to go out and play, you know those 'Ahh I feel like playing now, man' moments you get because you just watched some of the best in the business? Yeah that's not a good sign. Most athletes would actually be annoying the person they are watching the film with because the movie actually made them feel like bouncing or kicking a ball around, while it's still playing.
Moreover on the subject of being mislead. Adverts make courts and pitches look so fresh. Documentaries make childhood courts of and towns of the superstars appear so nostalgic and dope. Yet these shorts films and still frames can't depict the less alluring aspects to such venues. Michael Jordan's boyhood backyard court is a great example. MJ grew up playing there right, so I bet a bunch of people would love to have had such a court after seeing the tattered yet mesmerising hoops on 'Michael Jordan To The Max' and 'Come Fly With Me.' People forget about the wind that would have graced that out-door court. The untrue bounce they would have received from the grass. Oh these things hit home when people venture to such places and realise it's the same as any other court, so they get pissed off. 'The movie made me wanna play but the skills I tried to re-create didn't look anything like the movie....crap!' Don't think playing on such a court is what made MJ so great. Your skills on the same court would develop very differently to his because at the end of it all, you are two different people. Similarly don't think playing at Madison Sq. or Rucker Park will automatically raise your game. There's still a 10ft high ring, backboard and 23 somthin' feet 3 point line.



So to conclude this awful ramble; this whole basketball-inspirational-glamourisation type thing that's been going on in advertising for a good while now is somewhat scarily misleading to young kids. Yes it's great to hear success stories of players working hard for their dreams but that's just it, 'their' dreams. They were lucky enough to have a passion as a youth that pays a ridiculous amount of cash-money as an adult. If it's your passion fair enough, work to get it, but look deep down and discover whether it really is what you love doing, or simply like doing and continue to do so because that's what you always have done. If you have a mind and actually have interest in discovering other things in this world that stray from the path of basketball or football or tennis, then maybe you should follow that calling. Professional sports are often such that, until you make it and create some time for yourself, there's no time for other hobbies or serious interests. Many will argue that this is why football players and ballers are usually a little on the dopey side. A knowledgeable mind (not intelligent, the most intelligent person on Earth could have litte knowledge whatsoever) is a curious mind. From my experience, not a good trait if sports is your thing. Focus will inevitably be lost when it's discovered that there's more to the world than the rectangular piece of asphalt you stand on and the 'Spalding' engrained leather in your hand.

Remember that sometimes players like to make a fuss and story over exactly how they 'made it' because sometimes it's hard to just state that 'I made it' plain and simple. Notice how a number of famous figures do this kind of thing. It's almost as if they try and make out like they're more special than they actually are. 'I was always trying to find out exactly how things worked,' or ,'He used to sit all day and write comics and feature length movie scripts,' or 'Basketball was my escape from the streets.' Those type of sayings are all well and good, perhaps some are even 100% true. However they mislead the young in to thinking these folks had no normal upbringing, as if they were never just normal kids once. They'd rather give some little anecdote about how they're mother or father instilled in them life lessons that got them where they are today. Many parents do such things. Instilling work ethic and drive in to children is common among all good parents. So don't go constantly looking for these movie-romantic, Hollywood moments in your life in the hope that you can one day talk of similar stories. Life a is lot less glamourous in the present than when it is being recounted in the future, so be thankful for what you have and do what you love. If it leads to fame and fortune, then and only then, can you come with the bullshit stories of the blog being your escape from reality, photographing dramatic stills of a solitary chair in a room with a single computer hiding the less enchanting aspects to the room itself.

Well that was a tad depressing. We need a mood lightener next.