Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the USA which is interesting for professionals and amateurs. The history of developing the principles of the basketball game is associated with the personality of James Naismith who worked out the rules in the 1890s. Basketball was discussed as the sport game for the youth which was popular in schools and colleges as the part of students’ physical activities. The principles of basketball as the professional sport were developed during the first decades of the twentieth century.
Basketball as the team sport for young people became the part of the college curriculum in the USA. In the 1980s, the National Basketball Association (NBA) was organized in order to represent the interests of the professional players and regulate the main principles of the sport (Delaney, 2009). Thus, today basketball develops in different forms as the professional sport for the NBA teams, as the college sport, and as the amateur sport with references to the street basketball.
In the USA, men and women play basketball, and gender is not a significant factor in relation to discussing the socio-demographic characteristics with references to fans. The middle age of players is between 25 and 33 years. The middle age of fans is above 35 years. Basketball is the specific sport in the USA in which black players can be discussed as more successful than white sportsmen.
However, the numbers of black and white professional sportsmen are rather similar (Macbeth, 2012). Nevertheless, race is not influential to discuss the public interested in basketball because there are no obvious patterns and regularities to analyze the issue.
Basketball is the important part of the contemporary American life, and participation of young people in the teams is actively encouraged in the society. Professionals are discussed as successful people, and their social statuses are high. That is why, much attention is paid to the development of basketball in the college campuses as the first step to the professional career. In spite of the ‘street mentality’ and focuses on physical aggression, professional basketball is associated with success, contest, and prosperity (Delaney, 2009, p. 162).
Basketball games are broadcasted with the help of television, but the ratings of TV games are lower in comparison with the general level of the public’s interest in basketball contests. Fans of basketball prefer to attend contests regularly and often follow the scores of the favourite teams in relation to the NBA games (Macbeth, 2012). However, the sports media focus on covering the main basketball events, and many players are effective to participate in commercials because of the public’s interest in the sport.
Race is one of the most controversial issues connected with basketball because it was separated for white and black people during a long period of time, and today much attention is paid to discrimination in basketball which is associated with the white people’s attitude to the success of black sportsmen in basketball.
Trainers are inclined to invite the black people in professional teams. The issue of gender is important to discuss the popularity of the sport among the public because male sportsmen are more successful and popular in the American society (James, 2002). This fact is explained with references to the history of the sport’s development.
As a social institution, basketball is important to form the culture of the young people who are interested in sport. Moreover, basketball is effective to train such qualities as team work, persistence, and the ability to control aggression. Professional basketball players have high statuses within the society, and the audience’s interest to the sport is inclined to increase. That is why, the focus on organizing basketball teams in schools and colleges is observed today.
References
Delaney, T. (2009). The sociology of sports: An introduction. USA: McFarland.
James, J. (2002). Women’s and men’s basketball: A comparison of sport consumption motivations. Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal, 11(2), 141-148.
Macbeth, D. (2012). Some notes on the play of basketball in its circumstantial detail, and an introduction to their occasion. Human Studies,35(2), 193-208.