NBA vs WNBA

The 2 highest points you cant get to in basketball is either the NBA or the WNBA. The difference between both is that the NBA is for the men's league and the WNBA is for the women's National Basketball Association. But why can't women be paid the same amount as men do ?

I find it very sexist because not only do women not play in the men's league but they also aren't getting nearly the same salary's. For example the average salary of a WNBA player for the 2012 season was 72,000$ while the league minimum rests just above 35,000$ for rookies. But in the NBA the average salary was 5.1 million dollars. The women's salary multiplied by 50 is still not even close to the men's salary. I can't believe that the women dont get paid as much. Both are professional basketball league's. There the same leagues but the only difference is gender. But gender should not differ the prices.

The salary cap for a WNBA team does not even reach the 1 million dollar mark. It sits at 878,00$. But the NBA's salary cap is 58 million dollars. Also not as many fans buy tickets to the WNBA games compared to the NBA games. i don't know why either how many women average way more points then some guy's in the NBA but don't receive as much money.

Let's look at Joel Anthony. Joel currently averages 0.9 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.1 assists. With these extremely low stats he gets paid 2.3 million dollars. Compared to Maya Moore, Maya currently averages 18.5 points, 7.2 rebouds and 3.3 assists. With those amazing stats she gets paid 45,000$. This is just not fair. Girls are doing better the guy's in the professional leagues but don't get paid as much. Also Maya has won the most valuable player award for the WNBA in 2014. Joel Anthony never won that award.


                              VS

In conclusion, gender should once again not change the fact that they are both National Basketball Associations. So they should be getting the same treatment and fame. I find that there are many players in the WNBA that are easily better then the guys who play in the NBA. So women should be treated equally as men.


Source:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2012/12/07/average-player-salaries-in-the-four-major-american-sports-leagues/#39f755553497
http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/wnba-player-salaries-vs-nba-salaries/
http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/201202/stats/

Bigotry against Kyrie Irving in the NBA finals

Kyrie Irving was the 1st pick in the 2011 NBA draft. But no one really cares about him these days since Stephen Curry is point guard of the league that everyone talks about and he has won the MVP award for the 2nd consecutive year. Also since Lebron James was traded to the Cavaliers so Lebron became the star of the team and took the shine away from Kyrie.

Everyone has been overrating Stephen Curry only because he is well capable of shooting the ball behind the 3 point line. But they forget that there is more to basketball then just shooting. No one really payed attention or cared about Kyrie Irving in the finals because the better Point Guard according to the fans is Steph Curry. In my opinion it's Kyrie Irving. Not only because Kyrie is my favorite player but simply because he can do more things on the court other then shoot.

Kyrie Irving is a phenomenal ball handler. He is also a better defender then Stephen Curry. If someone tells me other wise I have the perfect example to prove them wrong. Every time the Warriors and the Cavaliers match up in a game weather its the season, an exhibition or even the NBA finals, it's always Klay Thompson who has to guard Kyrie because Curry can't guard him. Usually in the NBA every position guards the opponent with the same position as them. But in certain cases just like Curry, Klay Thompson who plays the shooting guard had to guard Kyrie who plays the point guard since Steph can't keep up with Kyrie. But Kyrie plays defense on Stephen Curry because he is a good defender and is capable of guarding him.

Also Kyrie Irving is an amazing finisher around the basket. He can get to the rim easily and finish in many different ways, Compared to the MVP Curry, Curry is ''afraid'' of attacking the rim because he is a small player and usually gets bullied inside the paint. So instead of Curry attacking the rim he stays outside the 3 point line and shoots the ball every possession he has.

At the end of the day it's the stats that matter. And let"s check out the stats of Kyrie Irving compared to Stephen Curry in the final series. As we can see to my picture to the right we can see that Kyrie Irving had more points then Stephen Curry. Kyrie had a better field goal percentage because Kyrie took smarter shots in games. They both tied with 23 assists each and Kyrie had 9 turnovers less then Stephen Curry. So Kyrie has definitely proved him self as a top 5 point guard in this league and that he can easily match up against the 2 time MVP Stephen Curry.

So whenever someone tells me that Curry is a better basketball player then Kyrie, I get really defensive because i know he is not and he does not even deserve to be either. Kyrie Irving works 20 times harder and can do more then just shoot the ball behind the 3 point line.

Sources:
www.nba.com/playerfile/kyrie_irving
espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/6442/kyrie-irving

Bigotry against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals

        Congratulations to the Cleveland Cavaliers who won the NBA championship over the Golden State Warriors a few weeks ago. But, was this expected? The Golden State Warriors (GSW) finished this season with a record of 73 wins and 0 losses which is the all-time win record. Only the Chicago Bulls during the 1995-96 season have accomplished that before. As the season ended, everyone thought the GSW were going to win the championship, especially since the 2-year running MVP Stephen Curry was excelling in his games. At one point, the Warriors led the series 3-1; just one win away from a back-to-back championship title. They disregarded practice since they thought they would win it all. Everyone was convinced the Cavaliers were going to lose to the Warriors. But Lebron James promised that he would bring back a championship to Cleveland, his hometown; he certainly did not break that promise.

Stephen Curry vs Lebron James

Lebron James was forgotten ever since the GSW were at the 65 won-games mark. Everyone began to overrate Stephen Curry and underrate Lebron James. This made me really mad because Lebron is the better player. Just because Steph is able to shoot the ball accurately from the 3-point line does not mean he is a better basketball player than ''King James''. The fans who find that Curry is better then Lebron obviously do not understand the reason why Lebron is called the King. He is called the King because he is the best player. He rules everyone. Lebron is unstoppable.

First of all, I don't even understand how people can compare Lebron James to Stephen Curry and not see the differences. Lebron is a small forward and Curry is a point guard. Usually, small forwards are better than point guards just by their physical strength. Secondly, Lebron is well-built: Curry, not so much. It doesn't make sense that the popular opinion is that Curry is better. Lebron's stats during his season compared to Curry's are just ridiculous.

Many people blame it on Lebron being older then Stephen Curry. That's why the fans of the NBA think that Curry is better then Lebron. But these stats on the right show Lebron's accomplishments compared to Curry's accomplishments at both the age of 28.

In this diagram, Curry is nowhere close to Lebron in points, assists, rebounds, steals, playoff wins or all-star nominations. Statistics don't lie.

All of this should show that these two players are good at what they do but they can't be compared.

Sources:
http://www.landofbasketball.com/results_by_team/2015_2016_warriors.htm

Basketball Players vs Other Career's

  

NBA players are lucky as they can play basketball or a job. They get to do what they love and are paid millions of dollars at the same time. Kobe Bryant from the Los Angeles Lakers will be paid 25 million dollars this year. Kobe is a great player, but he has had a horrible season. His team is at the bottom of their conference and it has a 17-65 record. I can't believe that a player can be paid so much money and have so many losses. He isn't playing as well as he used to because of it being his last season. As a basketball player, he is too old, so that contributes to his poor performance.

          Others who work hard in careers that benefit society and don't get paid much compared to athletes have it bad. Ballers have pure fun doing their job whereas teachers work hard day and night to prepare lessons and do their best to give students the best education. Teachers barely get paid compared to athletes but they make more of a difference to people.

 Many people forget about our troops who away from us, serving our country. Athletes are worried about getting injured, losing the game, missing shots, and/or turning over the ball. Our troops worry about not dying and being able to see their families again. They have so much more to lose than athletes but not as many people, in my opinion, care about our soldiers. They only care about dunks and 3 pointers. I think that athletes, at the end of the day, shouldn't have to worry much because they will get to see their loved ones, have a place to stay, and have something to eat anyway.

         

            Some people are forced to work jobs they are not pleased with and not get paid enough. Athletes are famous and wealthy. Even bench players no one knows still get paid couple millions. I am a very big fan of the NBA and I've never heard of Tobias Harris until I wrote this blog: he barely plays! He still gets paid 16 million dollars! That's just unfair.  All they do is toss a ball around and they're suddenly able to live their whole life with one year's salary.

Does Height Matter in Basketball

We all know that in the Nba there are many different sizes of athletes. Some big, some small, some weak. But bunch of people have been wondering if height matters in basketball. Players who have height have some advantages and some disadvantages. Above average height basketball players have the advantages of being able to get a rebound easier, protect the basket easier and looks big on the court which can intimated other players. Also they have better strength, longer reach, better visibility, and less likely to become dehydrated. They depend on there height a lot. Even tho some big prove that they can do the same abilities as guards. In this video right here we can see that Yao Ming shows a nice dribble move to get around a defender and shows that not only guards can dribble but big men as well.

Mean while under average players or shorter players don't have those abilities. they're less depend on there height. Yes short players can grab rebounds, protect the baskets and can do what centers or power forwards can do but not as easy as tall players. Short players have the advantages of manipulating the ball better. Tall players are higher off the ground and its very hard for them to be able to dribble and not get the ball stolen because they're less accurate. Also short players are quicker, have better balance, agility and lower center gravity and faster reaction times. Guards in the Nba have way better endurance then the bigger men. For example lets think about Russel Westbrook from the Oklahoma City Thunder compared to Roy Hibbert from the Idiana Pacers. Russel Westbrook is such an explosive player and runs way more in a game then Roy Hibbert but still Russel stays on the court for a longer time because he wont get as tired as Roy. And let`s not forget about when the 5`9 Nate Robinson blocks 7`6 Yao Ming, 7`5 Shaquille O'neal and the best player in the world, 6`8 Lebron James.  Watch Yao Ming get blocked right here. Also Chris Paul prooving that its not only big men who can get up high and slam over every little player. He shows us that small guards like him can also rise to the hoop and slam on big men.

Nate Robinson dunks on Yao Ming

Chris Paul 6`1 dunks on Dwight Howard 6`11 

      <---WOW--->











So its exactly why having short and tall people in the Nba make the game very interesting and fun to watch because all those different aspects combined make a crazy show and put on some crazy highlights. I can`t even imagine having either only guards or only big men in the Nba. All the alley-oops and pick & roll plays wont be as fun. The height difference makes some creative moments in the Nba.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/nba/top-stories/Height-doesnt-matter-to-excel-in-basketball-say-NBA-stars/articleshow/23055701.cms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_in_sports#Basketball

http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-basketball-have-height-divisions-like-wrestling-boxing-has-weight-divisions

Racism On and Off The Court

The National Basketball Association began in 1946 where all the players were black. The first white player to play in the NBA came in one year after it was created. Races and ethnicity have changed over the years. In 2013,  the NBA was composed of 76 percent African-American players, 19 percent white players, 4 percent Latino and under 1 percent Asian players and other players. This picture explains the percentages of the races and their positions in the NBA. This league has the highest percentage of black players in any sports league in the North America and Canada. Also in October 2013, 53 percent of the head coaches were white, 43 percent African-American, 3 percent Latino and 0 percent Asian and others. The Majority owners of the league were 98 percent White and 2 percent African-American. The other races were not even in the conversation. But in the League Office Staff 64 percent were white, 18 percent were African-American, 6 percent Latino, 11 percent Asian and under 1 percent other. 

Many people have spread rumors that black people are better at basketball because they can run faster and jump higher. They think that black people have better skills and athleticism. All of this is not true. Sure there are some black players who are very talented and are better than some of the other players. But there is plenty of other players who are better than the black players. For example Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has won the award (record-setting) of the MVP trophy 6 times, the most in the NBA and he isn't black.

                               

Donald Sterling, the old commissioner of the NBA and old owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, was banned for life and fined a sum of 2.5 million dollars due to damaging the league and its teams with his racist comments. He told his girlfriend "Don't bring black people to my games" said Donald Sterling. I find this very wrong that he said that and i am very glad that he got banned and fined. Everyone has there place in this world. Donald Sterling should know that at the end of the day black and white people all are human beings. They deserve the same respect as us, they are the same people just different lifestyles. A lot of coaches, players and even the president Obama had many comments on Mr.Sterling.




In the movie Glory Road every head coach in the NCAA were all white and only wanted to recruit and have white players on their team. Don Haskins who got the job as the new head coach of the 1966 Texas minors decided to build a team based on talent instead of race. They ended up winning the whole tournament and finishing 1st place and being the national champions. The movie made me feel happy because I saw the journey it took for the white players on that team to finally accept the fact that the black players are as good and some, even better than them and that they all have a place on the team. Also, I enjoyed the chemistry they had during the road to the championship and I liked how both races taught each other different things,

                                      






Also in october 2013, 53 percent the head coaches were white, 43 percent African-American, 3 percent Latino and 0 percent Asian and others. The Majority owners of the league were 98 percent White and 2 percent African-American. The other races were not even in the conversation. But in the League Office Staff 64 percent were white, 18 percent were African-American, 6 percent Latino, 11 percent Asian and under 1 percent other.


http://www.tmz.com/2014/04/26/donald-sterling-clippers-owner-black-people-racist-audio-magic-johnson/

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/may/20/donald-sterling-officially-charged-with-damaging-nba-with-racist-comments

http://www.hothothoops.com/2014/9/9/6127065/racism-and-the-nba

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Association#History