Millenial Generation in the NBA

                                                                                    Thesis:

“He's the best player in the game. It's just that simple. There's nothing that Kobe Bryant can't do…” Those are only a few words that were enthusiastically shouted by an NBA analyst, in the introduction of a song that Lil Wayne, a well known rapper, made about Kobe Bryant. This is only one small part of my argument that the NBA has evolved over generations, specifically in the millennial generation. The game has become globally involved; it is because of the diversification that has taken place within the whole game. The NBA is now made up of different races; versatile players and new personas added by the hip hop culture.

        



Body Paragraph:

Millennials have evolved the NBA to make it globally involved with it now consisting of many different races. There are more international players in the NBA now than ever before and the reason behind this is because we have big names like Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki, Ricky Rubio, Manu Ginobili, and Jeremy Lin contributing to the internationalization. Entering the 2010-2011 season an all-time record high of 84 international players was set in the NBA. I could not put it in any better words than Thomas Oates and Judy Polumbaum as they wrote in the Agile Big Man: The Flexible Marketing of Yao Ming, “Beyond [Yao’s] utility as corporate pitchman and draw for his team, Yao Ming’s presence on an NBA roster is hugely important to the league’s design for global expansion” (194). As Yao Ming’s existence on an NBA team is globally promoted, millennial generation kids from all over the world are influenced to play the game of basketball and follow their dreams to play at the professional level since they see that it is possible for different races other than Americans or African Americans to play in the NBA. “At the same time, Yao Ming brings an unfamiliar model to the hyper-masculine arena of US-style commoditized basketball,” (191) argued Oates and Polumbaum, which is in fact really good for the NBA because it brings variety to the sport. The variety in the sport is what makes people want to watch because they can feel more into the game as they can root for their own race or country that different players may be representing. It is a big reason why basketball is one of the most popular sports in our generation. In an interview of my basketball basketball coach, Roland Watts, who played in the NBA Development league and also coached my high school team and I, leading us to win the State Championship, I was able to ask him personally how he felt about the NBA being so internationally involved now and he answered passionately, “I LOVE IT! It’s great because the NBA is not limited to just the best of one city, state, or country, these are the best of the world.” The NBA now, even has foreign players drafted straight from overseas that get the opportunity to display their talents on All Star weekend. The opportunity for foreign players helps the sport grow and makes it more fun with a variety of international players, playing a different type of game because of where they are from. For example, Ricky Rubio from Spain is a point guard and growing up in a soccer country playing and watching soccer in his younger years helps him in his style of play, passing the ball with smartness and accuracy. “He can pass that ball,” are the exact words that even superstar Lebron James has tweeted after seeing him play in his first season (2011-2012) in the NBA. In the sport of soccer the way to win is by passing the ball, Ricky Rubio’s ability to see the open court with his peripheral vision aids his decision making that coaches love about him and what foreign players can bring to the game.