Cause and Effect of Players Going To the NBA

Aidan Baker

Sheila Allard

Written Communications

5/11/10

Kevin Garnett pictured above was one of the first NBA players ever to skip going to college and go straight to the NBA. After people saw how well he transitioned from skipping college and going straight to the NBA a lot of other people started to do it. Some big names that were very successful in doing so were Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Amare Stoudemire, and Jermaine O Neal. These are some of the very few that actually stayed in the league for a while and made a good career. There is also the other side of the coin where there are a lot more names that skipped going to college and went straight to the NBA. Among them are Kwame Brown, Desagana Diop, Sebastian Telfair, and Deshawn Stevenson. David Stern the NBA commisioner started to see this trend and put a stop to it in 2005 because the majority of kids that come out of highschool are not ready for the nba and he put a rule into effect where you had to go to atleast one year of college or be one year removed from high school.

This really helped bring a lot more attention to the college game because the likes of Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, Derrick Rose, and Michael Beasley were forced to go to college for one year because they could not go to the NBA. As Miller says in his article NBA age limit helps college powers "For once College Basketball got a Boost from the NBA." I do Agree with this statement because it did give a huge boost and the effect of players going to college is that its making players develop more from one college and get them physically more ready for the NBA. The bad thing tho is that there are still a select few basketball players that shouldn't have to go to college for one year because they are already that good. Lebron James would have dominated if he went to college and he also would have lost 3 million dollars because that is what his rookie salary is. ("Nba age limit helps college powers" paragraph 1)

I think that this new rule is having a more positive effect on College Basketball than the NBA because College teams can go from being allright to fantastic with just one player. Look at what Kevin Durant did in one season, he pretty much carried texas on his back all season on his way to a college basketball national player of the year award. During that season Greg Oden and Kevin Durant single handedly made it the most rememberable in recent years. ("NBA age requirements pay dividends in College Hoops" paragraph 11) They may have made it rememberable but they also missed out on 3 million dollars because thats what they could have made if they played in the NBA instead of had to go to college.

The rule right now is allright but i think that it needs to be changed a little bit. I think if you are good enough to play in the NBA right out of High School that you should be able to go to the NBA. Im not the only one that thinks this, Jermaine O'neal even said that if you are good enough no matter what age you are you should be able to go straight to the NBA just like in baseball. ("NBA + Age Limit= Good for Basketball" paragraph 4) I think the effects from this rule are both good and bad for each league and it kind of evens out but i still think stars like Derrick Rose and John Wall should be able to go straight to the NBA because thats what they want to do for the rest of ther life. I think that the best way to do it is by being evaluated by scouts to see if your good enough to enter right out of high school and if your not you have to go to college but if you are you can go straight to the NBA. I guess time will only tell if things will turn out this way and I hope it does because it makes the NBA more exciting.

Works Cited

Miller, Mike. "NBA age limit helps college powers." June 24th 2005: 1. Web. 10 May 2010. .ed

Myers, Mark. "NBA age requirements pay dividends in college hoops." Feb. 7, 2007: 1. Web. 10 May 2010. .

The Man, Tan. "NBA + Age Limit = Good For Basketball." Apr 18, 2005 : 1. Web. 10 May 2010. .

Go Green or Go Home

One of the least known celebrations is a day that happened last week thursday, earth day. Earth day was originally created 40 years ago this year to challenge the government and corporate leaders to better the environment. Today many businesses are using this day as just another thing that they can market there products to there buyers. In the article "At 40, Earth Day is Now Big Business" from the New York Times the author gives an interesting quote " Gray Line, a New York City sightseeing company, will keep running its buses on fossil fuels, but it is promoting an “Earth Week” package of day trips to green spots like the botanical gardens and flower shopping at Chelsea Market." I find this entertaining that bus companys are supposedly doing good things for the environment when they are just ruining it each day they run.

I believe that everyone today has lost what the real meaning of earth day is. People don't really care about earthday and neither do companies. They are just using the day so that they can make money in there pocket. I really liked the idea of the recycling kiosks and i believe that it will help improve recycleing rates. I think that earth day should go away from being about marketing and go back to the original purpose, keeping the earth clean.

we be ridin dirty

All my life i have always wanted to buy myself a motorcycle. Over spring break i decided it was time to buy my first motorcycle. My friend showed me a picture of one from this dealer in richland center and i went and took a look at it and i really liked it. I had ridden dirtbikes a lot and fourwheelers so i was used to the shifting concept and i thought it would be the same but it really is a lot different. I talked to my friends and my family and they thought it would be a good starter bike because it was only 500cc and i didn't want to kill myself right away. I thought about it more and I bought it. It took forever to go thru the process but after i bought it and i started it up and i killed it right away. I finally took off and started driving it around the building and i tried to turn and its alot different than riding a dirtbike because you usually put your leg out and you have to lean a lot more on a motorcycle especially on a crotch rocket. You also have to get used to turn signals and stuff which is different but pretty simple.

I took it back to my place in la crosse and practice just riding around the block and in the alley behind my apartment complex. It took me a while to get used to the clutch especially when starting from being stopped. I didn't want to go out and get into an accident right away especially since i only have my learners permit. Eventually i kept driving further and further away from my apartment. One of the times i was driving downtown and i killed it at a stoplight and i felt like a complete retard, but i guess thats just one of the things you have to deal with when learning something new. I am now a whole lot better and can drive it pretty much anywhere in town i just need to take it out on the interstate or on a highway which i will soon once the weather gets nicer and i dont have to work. I just have to watch out for the other drivers out there because i already had someone pull out in front of me and almost hit me. I am very happy with my purchase and i can already tell that im gunna want to get a 600cc in about a year or two for more power. I am looking forward to riding it a lot more throughout the summer and glad that its a lot better on gas than cars.

Creativity

I think that the guy in the ted clip that we watched in class was pretty funny and he had a lot of good views and ideas on the current education system. I think that school and education in general should be more creative and less boring. There should be more time where you devoted to things that you like to do whether it be dancing, playing video games, or playing sports. I also liked the idea how he said that if all of the insects died on earth all of the humans would disappear in 50 years but if all of the humans died that all of the creatures on earth would flourish in 50 years. I agree with that because i believe a lot of the things that humans do hurt the environment and the creatures in the environment. If we weren't here they would most likely flourish and there would probably be a lot more creatures.

When he was talking about Gillian i thought it was funny that she had a problem because she always liked to be moving around. There are a lot of people out there that learn by doing something rather by just listenening to someone talk about how your suppose to do it. I am actually one of those people i learn by actually doing rather than listening to someone give directions on how to do it. I hope in the future that kids will get a better chance to have a more diverse learning environment rather than the one that we have where its all about math, science, and history. It will be interesting to see what the job market is in 10 to 20 years because of how he said that even if you ahev a college degree it still doesn't guarantee you a job because of the technology that we have now.

ballin!!

One of the things i miss about high school was playing on the boys basketball team it was one of the best things i did throughout highschool. Our team wasn't that great but i still had a lot of fun playing. Basketball is my favorite sport to watch on television and play. My favorite professional team is the San Antonio Spurs and my favorite college team is obviously the Wisconsin Badgers. I wasn't always into basketball i actually really sucked at basketball and only did it because all of my friends went out for it.

In jr high I was pretty much just a bench warmer and one of the shortest kids on the team. I barely played at all and when i was in eight grade my coach asked me if i would be all right with playing on the 7th grade team so i would get more playing time and i was like no. Once high school started i still went out for basketball and i really don't know why. Freshman year of high school i played c team and still pretty much sat on the bench all season. I only played if we were up by a lot which didn't happen a lot or if we were down by a lot which did happen on occasions. Once my sophmore year started i started to play basketball in the morning at our school with some other people at 6 and i slowly started to get better. I saw a lot of my friends in my grade play junior varsity. Here i was still on the c team but i actually played more than two minutes in a game.

After my sophmore year i knew that i wanted to get better and i saw older people that were seniors and played varsity but my coach would never play them because they sucked and i didn't want to be one of them. I got my drivers license and every morning i would go to the gym and play basketball and try and get better. I also finally started to grow at the beginning of my sophmore year of high school i was 5 ft 7 in and now im almost 6 ft 4 in. After my sophmore season i continually practice and got better and my jr year i finally made the jv team and started all of the jv games.

During my junior season i screwed up pretty mad and my coach got all in my face and started screaming at me and telling me how i keep making the same mistakes. This drove me to keep getting better and by the end of my junior season i was on the varsity squad. Over the summer before my senior year i practice harder than ever and i knew that i wanted to start varsity.I was now the tallest kid on our team instead of one of the shortest. The First game of the season my hard work paid off and i started and scored 14 points. The next day at practice my coach said that he could not believe how far i have come since freshman year and from junior year to senior year and it felt really good. I had people coming up to me saying that they remember when they saw me on c team and didn't think i would ever be a good basketball player. It was nice to see my hard work pay off and i believe if you put practice in you will get the results you want.

Wishes

My first wish would do be lower the tuition of all colleges everywhere. I think the price of going to college is outrageous. It shouldn't be anywhere near how high it is and i think that it is riduculus. People like you and me that want to get a better education so they can make a decent living have to pay thousands of dollars just to go to school to do that. I also think that the lowering of college prices would get more people to think about going to college because it would not be as much. I don't know why the price of going to college is so high but it should be cheaper.

My second wish is to cure world hunger which is a pretty big task to handle. I think that everyone in the world should have food to eat and not die from starvation. We are fortunate that we can just go down to mcdonalds and buy a double cheeseburger for a dollar. Other countries don't have that fortune. Not only would it be nice to cure world hunger but also get clean water everywhere in the water. A lot of the places in the world have water but it is contaminated with pesticides or other things that can kill you.

My third wish doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of the world just college football. I wish that they would get rid of the stupid BCS system. It is stupid to have the most popular teams from the best conferences play for the national championship. I think they should have a playoff system like basketball does. It would be a lot more entertaining and a lot more teams would get a shot and the championship. I think every champion from each conference in division one should be put into a tournament field and seeded according to coaches ranking and record then just play the games. I think schools would make more money and it would be a lot more fair for teams like utah and boise state and other non big six conferences to get a shot and the title.

Lets Get It!!!

High School was one of the best times of my lives all the memories i made with my friends. I live with three of my best friends in la crosse and i love it except for fighting over whose turn it is to do dishes and take out the garbage. In high school we were known as the kings of toilet papering. That is all we did in high school after we got our licenses because there is nothing else to do in the small town of Alma Center. Every weekend we would buy like 100 rolls of toilet paper and go out and toilet paper random peoples houses. I think i probably spent close to 300 dollars for all the supplies throughout high school but it was well worth it. The only thing that sucked about tping peoples houses would be once they found out they would get you back. My cousin found out we got his house so him and his friends decided to get a dead calf and cut it up and throw it on our cars which made me very mad so during homecoming week we just demolished his house and i put peanutbutter allover his windows and under his door handle and threw garbage on his car. We never got caught but we sure came close.
One time we were tping this house and her dad came out and started firing an airsoft gun so we had to run down a huge hill to get away it was kinda scary but the adrenaline rush was worth it. Probably the best one we ever did was when we tped my friends bri's house. She lives in the country and we had to get her back for window painting our cars so we went and got a whole bunch of toiletpaper. We knew she was having a big party the next night so we thought we should decorate it for her. We went out and started tping and then we realized that she wasn't home so i told my friend to text her and pretend like hes flirting with her and find out where she was and she said she was on the the way home from her friends house. We were like o crap so we waited for her and when she got there, she saw us and was pissed but thought it was funny. We started just giving her the tour of our work and she kept talking bout how its going to take forever to cleanup and we were standing by her pond and she asked me if i had my phone on me then she tackles me into her pond and gets us both really wet. We get out and she then takes my shoes and throws them into the forrest. I was like whatever i got new ones that day and on our way to our car we window painted her car and left. It was one of the most fun nights of my life and nights like that make me miss high school.