NBA Merchandise and Income

Throughout the past couple of years merchandise from ticket sales and selling jerseys has been a huge source of income in the NBA.  Unbelievably, the Chicago Bulls had the most ticket sales during the 2015-2016 season.  Within the past month, the big story inthe NBA was Kobe Bryant going on his fair well tour. Within one month the Lakers' Staples Center sold over 1.2 million dollars of Kobe Bryant merchandise.  Since the NBA has so much money, from world around fans, the NBA has a lot of money to spend.  The average NBA referee makes over $150,000 a year.

Research Questions

While researching the NBA I have found some some interesting topics to talk about.

Why do some teams have a larger salary cap than other teams?

What happens when NBA teams want to trade their draft picks during the lottery?

Why does the NBA now allow women referees?

How does the NBA scout players so deep in the draft?

How many players are drafted each year from the draft?

Why is the salary cap for each team massively rising?

How much percentage of sales profit does the NBA make off of selling merchandise like jerseys?

Billion Dollar Ball Blog 2

Yesterday Gilbert Gaul, the author of Billion Dollar Ball visited our school and talked about his book and other college sports topics.  Mr. Gaul put countless hours of time and dedication to write this book, by visiting division one schools from across the nation and setting up interviews with the schools.  It took him many weeks to try and get an interview with Nick Saban, the head football coach of Alabama.  Mr. Gaul sent countless emails and letters to the Alabama headquarters, and one day he got a call back that he can not talk with Saban but he could get an interview with some of the athletes and the athletic director.  He could only do this all under some circumstances from the athletic director, he could not ask any athletes about anything related to tax.  He used this interview as a huge start up for his book and helped him get to where he is today.

Mr. Gaul also talks about how college head coaches are making a substantial amount of money compared to the school's chancellor or professors.  When he set up interviews with all of these world renown schools he found out some very intriguing information about the student athletes.  The athletes are all taking very similar courses, and when Mr. Gaul looked into these classes he realized that they were the easiest courses offered on campus.  He also noted that the big time athletes being recruited to Princeton, Harvard, etc. for sports, they do not have the required GPA and SAT scores needed to apply at that school.  But because they are athletes, the school does not worry about that aspect.  Overall, I think Mr. Gaul was very influential to our class and I learned many new things I never knew before about his book and Gilbert Gaul himself.

Billion Dollar Ball lot 1/3

On March 5th Gilbert M. Gaul is visiting our school to talk about his book "Billion Dollar Ball" at Cinnaminson High School. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for writing this book.  The Billion Dollar Ball is a persuasive book through the big money culture of college football.  He references colleges such as Michigan State, Notre Dame, and almost all of the Texas schools.     Also, he talks about the big money profit that Texas University profits every year from just its football team, as well as the big money stadium they are putting in that fits over 100,000 people.  I found reading this book very influential and it was a great book to read for our sports and society class.

Questions for Mr. Gaul

1. Why did you decide to write this book?
2.  What inspired you to write this book?
3.  Did you play any college sports?
4.  How did you get a passion for sports?
5.  How much money did you make off of this book alone?
6.  What college did you attend?
7.  How many colleges did you visit while writing this book beforehand?
8.  Why did you focus on the University of Texas?

Experts on the NCAA

http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-ncaa-athletes-be-paid

http://ww2.kqed.org/education/2015/03/27/college-athletes-get-paid/

Sole Man

In our sports and society class we watched an ESPN 30 for 30 film called "Sole Man".  This film shows the remarkable journey a man of the name of Sonny Vaccaro went to to fulfill his dreams.  His ultimate dream was to spread his shoe company that happened to be Nike, and have people wear the brand all around the world.  He began by finding the best high school basketball players in the nation.  He would then provide the coaches of these athletes with Nike gear, and money.  The coaches then told their players to wear their products, and people who would see the players play in the shoes would want to wear the same.  But what made Sonny famous for who he is to this day, was the way he got big athletes to wear his Nike gear.  When Michael Jordan was a huge star in college Sonny noticed and told Michael that he would have his own signature shoe if he signed a contract with Nike.  After this deal was made, and Michael was soon led to his NBA stardom, Nike's companies sales sky rocketed.  The brand of the name of Jordan was known all around the world and Sonny was not done yet.  He found other big names in sports such as Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady and gave them their own signature shoe.

 But a few years later Sonny was fired of his job, because of leaving a bad reputation with Nike.  Sonny swore for revenge and began to work with the company Adidas.  It could be believed that his being fired from Nike had to do with Sonny not being able to convince Ed O'Bannon, a top high school prospect to the University of USC which was where his best friend George Raveling was the head coach at.  In later years O'Bannon and Sonny became very close and have been working on getting college athletes paid.  The two took this case to court and took on the NCAA,  and eventually won.  To this day student athletes are still not allowed to be paid but that will most likely be changed in the future.

NCAA Controversy

Throughout March and April the NCAA tournament is in full go.  Everyone is talking about it, and everyone is making bets on their brackets.  But with all of this excitement, there is also a little bit of controversy.  The NCAA is trying to find out new ways to make money, and one way is to expand the arena during the final four to an NFL stadium.  The NCAA is almost doubling their profit of ticket sales, because of how much bigger the NFL stadium is than a regular basketball gym.  But with this happening there is also a lot of people complaining about not being able to see the game.  With the seats being so expanded and so far away from the court fans have little to no visibility of what is happening during the game.

Not only this, but people are considering why the NCAA did not allow Louisville to play in the tournament but did allow UNC and Syracuse to play. All three of these teams were involved with cheating and the NCAA punished them accordingly.  The NCAA allowed Syracuse to play in the tournament but punished them by taking off 12 scholarships in their program.  On the other hand, UNC did just as much cheating as Syracuse but did not get any punishments.  People are saying the NCAA is doing this because UNC brings so much profit and without them in the tournament it would be a huge loss of profit, and the competition would not be the same.

 

Youth Basketball Commisioner

If we were in charge of a local youth basketball league,we would make it a positive, fun environment where it can also be competitive at the same time.  The kids in my league will learn the fundamentals of the game from scratch, and get taught the correct way to use their skills.  Until the players get how the game is played then the fun will begin.  There will be age split up groups such as the 2nd and 3rd graders together, as well as the 4th and 5th graders.  We would do live scrimmaging so the kids can put their previous taught skills learned into a real game situation.  At such a young age I don't believe the concept of sports should be about winning or losing, it should be about having fun.  I believe student athletes should not only care about winning or losing until they reach at least 5th grade.  We think that players that are pushed at a much younger age than this, such as in the show Friday Night Tykes is unnecessary.
Some of the rules in my league would be that coaches must let all of the players play in games.  Also, the coach should have a mindset to make the kids better players and utilize teamwork.  Lastly, coaches should be putting a positive influence on the kids by encouraging them to do better and practice on your own.  The kids in my league should have the mindset for work ethic, but also to have fun and have fun with their neighborhood friends.  Lastly, the parents of the kids should bring their kids to the practice every week with no exception.  If kids at this early point in their life know that it is alright to quit then they will do it for the rest of their lives'.

30 for 30

If I could any three 30 for 30 film by ESPN to watch in class, I would enjoy to see I Hate Christian Laettner, Winning Time:Miller vs. The Knicks, and No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson.  Since my blog is mainly on the topic of basketball, I would like to stay in the same topic of the sport I am writing about.  All three of this 30 for 30 films I have chose are very popular around the world, and is very influential, with many controversial topics.  In the past I have watched the Christian Laettner and Reggie Miller 30 for 30, and it was two of the best documentaries I have ever seen.  Also, the Allen Iverson 30 for 30 I have only heard positive things about.  It seems very interesting and it seems like it can have a lot of information that the students in our class can blog about.  Not only that but, I have never really heard what happened to Allen Iverson a few years back involving his case and his trial.  With topics like these, there will be many controversial topics like the ones that we have been blogging about in the past.  I believe if our class watches these three 30 for 30 films, it will leave a positive mark of how we will later blog about it in the future.

Female Journalism

Erin Andrews has always been one of the most famous sideline reporters, in the MLB, NFL, or NCAA.  But within the past few years she has been filing a law suit against another man who took nude pictures of her getting changed through a peep hole in a hotel.  The man has been stalking Erin for many years before the incident even happened, trying to get pictures of her at the beach or even at the mall.  About two years ago, the first case of the incident happened and the man was faced with 9 months in a federal prison.  But one he was released and the case seemed to be thrown away Erin Andrews sued the man again for a whopping 50 million dollars.  She later won the case, but she still lives in embarrassment each day knowing that her nude photos are out in the internet.

Female journalism seems to be the most popular in sports right now.  But, they seem to be getting a lot of criticism.  There have been cases of female reporters in the locker room after games when the players have been getting changed.  Most athletes think that it is an invasion to their personal space. One instance in 2015, there was a reporter interviewing an athlete in a locker room, and one point in the interview two other athletes on the team walked by the camera near naked not knowing that there was a camera and being broadcasted on television.  But the video of the two athletes were immediately blurred out and edited. Since this has been happening in so many cases in the past, reporters are beginning to respect the players space.  Within the past year, instances of cases like these have been dropping substantially.

In future years I believe female reporters will be protected and safe from stalkers around the world.  But I realize that when there is a female, primarily in a male working habitat, things like this may occur.  But I believe sport reporting companies will help protect these female reporters as best they can.  I hope that cases like this can be dropped and out of the way, so professional sports can be a drama free environment.

Great Reporter

Sports on its own is big around the world, from television and other aspects.  But one of the main reasons sports are popular is because of sports reporters on social media.  They help spread media and drama throughout the NBA, NFL, and NCAA.  A reporter that I will be writing about it Chad Ford from ESPN head quarters.  His reports are mainly in the basketball field, from any where from High School to the NBA he reports about it.  But some of the main topics he covers are the ranks in college basketball.  When March Madness comes about he will be reporting everything he can to get the latest updates and reports.  He has been reporting recently on the biggest NBA prospects in the NCAA such as Ben Simmons, Buddy Hield, and Brandon Ingram.  But the main thing Ford is known for, for basketball fans around the world is his NBA mock draft he does throughout the season.  The mock draft is a list showing who the top picks will be in the next draft.  Changing throughout the season because of injuries and stats, his mock draft must be constantly updated.  Because of his hard work around the reporting field, he is one of the most well known.  If it wasn't for social media, sports would not be at the height it is around the world.

All American To Bust

On Monday, March 7, 2016 my school CHS had an assembly.  The assembly focused on the aspects of social media and some players who ruined their sports careers by social media.  One of these former players is Yuri Wright.  Yuri was an All-American in high school in football and was getting scholarships from big schools such as Michigan and Notre Dame.  But this all came to an end after some foolish mistakes he made on the social media app twitter.  He tweeted explicit and inappropriate terms using race and other words.  After having his tweets seen by both his colleges and his current high school Don Bosco Prep he lost his scholarships and got expelled from his high school.  Despite all of this happening he transferred high schools to Ramsey High School, and later got a smaller scholarship to the University of Colorado.  In college, Yuri's football career went downhill real fast, dealing with several injuries.  Even after his injuries were subsided and out of the way his stats for games were down the drain. In his Sophomore season he only had 11 tackles and no interceptions.  This proves that whatever you put on social media it will always come back to you and haunt you in the future

Tennessee Rape Case

Many people know about Tennessee's famous rape case with Peyton Manning back in 1996.  But now there are even more controversial cases. University of Tennessee head coach Butch Jones accused one of his players of betraying the team by helping a woman who alleged she was raped by two of his teammates.  The woman was very good friends with the player who was "betraying the team" and when two other players on the team raped this girl the friend of the girl, he  spoke out to the university about the rape.  Later leading to a suspension to the two players, the coach then called out to the player and told him publicly that he betrayed his team.  Within a couple of weeks the two players were released from their suspension from the coaches Butch Jones' owner.  

In my opinion, I believe that Butch Jones should be fired from the Tennessee program.  For someone to call one of their players a betrayer to their team just for sticking up for one of their recently raped friends is outrageous.  If he is not fired within the next year, it will be a disappointment to myself and other people around the world. The fact that so many athletes are getting away with rape on college campuses is a huge disgrace to schools around the world.

Hunting Ground

The film "Hunting Ground" is a documentary about rape on American college campuses. The movie interviews victims, and they tell their harsh tale of how the rape happened.  The movie also gives facts about how many big colleges do almost nothing about rape cases to protect the schools image. This is very shocking to me, because I would think some of the big colleges like Arizona State University, Harvard, and Tennessee would handle sexual assault cases appropriately.  In the movie it shows rape cases of big college athletes.  Since the athletes bring so much profit to their schools, colleges blow off cases with athletes as much as they can, such as making rules that police are not aloud to reach them during school hours or during their sport.  I believe that schools should treat their athletes the same as they would treat any other student on that campus.

Critics of this movie treat almost as if they were the principals at these big schools.  They are saying that the victims in the movie are using false reports, which is hard to believe because it is so emotional for all of the victims.  Critics from IMDb are saying the movie is using incorrect statistics of rape, and the movie is propaganda to increase college rape awareness.  I feel completely opposed from these critics because I believe the movie is telling the truth.  Throughout the film it gives statistics of rape through out it, and shows magazines, and other universities that have proven that stat to be true.  Critics are saying that in the odds of being raped are less likely to happen than what stated in the film, in personal belief.  In my point of view, I disagree with this statement because there are college students all around the world that are raped and are too scared or nervous to speak out to the public about their rape.

On the other hand, critics from The New York Times have called this movie the best thing that can happen for rape victims, a very emotional and stunning film.  I completely agree with these positive comments on the movie.  After watching this inspirational, powerful movie it has raised my awareness to rape victims, and makes me want to take a stand.

Derrick Rose Accused of Rape

Derrick Rose; the former NBA MVP and is known as one of the most elite point guards in the league.  Rose is now being alleged of rape to his Ex- girlfriend.  The "Ex" who's name is being identified as "Jane Doe" said she dated the Chicago Bulls star from 2011 to 2013.  She alleged Rose and two friends slipping a drug into her drink at Rose's Beverly Hills home. TMZ reported "the plaintiff says she escaped the house with a friend, but later that night, Rose and his friends broke into her apartment and gang-raped her while she was incapacitated. She said she remembers only 'flashes' of the incident but can remember the defendants forcibly raping her."  Despite all of her revoke, no criminal charges are being put on Rose because the woman feared retaliation and she did not want to see Rose faced with jail time. To this day more and more star players in the NBA are being charged with sexual assault. Which player will be the next to do so?

Sexual Assault Cases With Big Athletes

Throughout the course of the last few months the two most talked about athletes have been Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant.  After Peyton Manning has just recently won Super Bowl 50, the rape controversy which happened with himself at the University of Tennessee has been brought up more. On the contrary, Kobe Bryant is considered to be one of the best basketball players of all time, and his final NBA season is coming to an end.  The Kobe Bryant sexual assault case began in July 2003 in Eagle, Colorado.  He was arrested for a sexual assault complaint filed by a 19 year old hotel employee (which he happened to be staying at).  These two substantial athletes' cases are being brought up again, and is having a very negative outcome on their great reputation. Both of these athletes are doing everything that they can to cover up the incident, and begin their retirement.

Beyonce Controversial Performance

During Super Bowl 50's halftime show Beyonce made a very politically controversial performance, Alongside Beyonce was also Coldplay and Bruno Mars.  She performed her new hit song "Formation". This song had various different political messages about racism and police brutality. Because of her actions the NFL is getting many allegation and protests from people around the world.  Her music video shows scenes with graffiti stating "stop shooting us" which refers to the police shootings in the United States, as well as scenes from the after math of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  Because these controversial issues are happening during the most watched game in America it becoming a huge issue around the world.  

Despite all of the criticism, Beyonce has also seen some support toward her performance. "Black Lives Matter activist Melina Abdullah praised her for being like artists who “are willing to raise social consciousness and use their artistry to advance social justice.”   But on the contrary, she is received very negative feedback from not only from the watchers of her performance but from the NFL itself.  

Super Bowl Comparison

Throughout the course of the 82 game NBA season each team has one goal.  To make it to the Finals and get a ring.  Some people would call the Finals the Super Bowl of basketball.  Through the course of the 7 game series, the hard work and dedication the players put in throughout the year is put out on the court.  But to make it to the the Finals it is a tough journey.  There are four rounds of the playoffs with 7 game series'.  Lasting from April to June, it is a long and hard journey. Like the Super Bowl there is an NBA Finals MVP announced after the series is over.  For many football fans the Super Bowl is the game to watch; while for basketball lovers The Finals series is the go to game to watch.

Introduction

I decided to blog about the NBA because I have been playing basketball all my life. Ever since a young age it been a passion to me.  I am a Freshman in High School, and getting ready for a road for a long High School career.  When I watch the NBA I always make sure I have the Cleveland Cavaliers game turned on so I can watch my favorite players like Lebron James, Kyrie Irving, and Iman Shumpert. It all started in first grade where it all began.  My first few years playing was in- town, then it advanced into a travel league, and eventually I progressed and got onto an AAU team. Nearly every weekend I go to the gym, to get a shoot around in with other players around my town. If anyone wants to be great in their sport they must put in hard work and dedication to make it to the top.

 On this blog, I will write about the different issues and big topics happening in the NBA,  including race, pay, female referee issues, and much more. The sport of basketball has a lot controversial issues, and I hope to share that with the readers on this blog.