Saturday, April 20, 2013

Reflections

On March 19, 1966, Texas Western Miner’s defeated the University of Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA men’s college basketball final in College Park, Maryland. The top-ranked University of Kentucky men’s basketball team was favored in the final over the third-ranked Miners. Kentucky’s coach and like many other coaches of the time, neither recruited nor played African-American players, using exclusively a white player line-up. Coach Don Haskins, which led the Texas Western team, on the other hand had inherited an integrated team and regularly played African-American blacks.
Until that moment, at the height of the civil-rights era, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in an NCAA championship game. In fact, until Texas Western coach Don Haskins did it earlier that season, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in ANY game. For the first time that night, on the edge of the Mason-Dixon Line, a major American sports championship would be contested by one team that was all white and another whose starters were entirely black.
In 1966, American cultural and sports mythology insisted at least one white starter was necessary for success. Black athletes, prevailing wisdom implied, needed the steadying hand of a white teammate. Otherwise, games would go into complete chaos. John W. Stewart wrote in the Baltimore Sun the weekend before the title game  ”`They can do everything with the basketball, but sign it.’” Referring to the myth of the undereducated black society.
Of Texas Western’s seven black players — the Miners also had four whites and a Hispanic, none of whom played that night – all total of the group – four graduated. The other three came within a semester of their degrees. Meanwhile, only four of Kentucky’s five starters, including star players Dampier and Riley, had not earned degrees. This was huge in proving that blacks and whites if given the chance can learn and do at the same levels.
Adolph Rupp and his all-white Kentucky program were not only the epitome of college basketball at the time, but were the ideal contradiction in the form of Haskins and Texas Western. It was as if history demanded that for change finally to occur, a great hero and a great villain must meet. Rupp and Haskins fit those roles perfectly. In the years immediately after Texas Western’s title, the integration of college sports took a great leap forward. Between 1966 and 1985, the average number of blacks on college teams jumped from 2.9 to 5.7. Showing that the times were finally changing.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Overpaid or Underappreicated?

Hello folks. As the NBA playoff season is about to kick off in the next few weeks and the teams that missed the playoffs go home to reflect on what could of been, I feel like I have some reflection of my own. I want to look back on a sporting moment of my own. In March of 2011 I attended a Portland TrailBlazer’s basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks and after the game I was blessed with the opportunity to go down to the court and do a little meet and greet with a former player and take a free throw shot. As I calmly sank a nothing but net shot, I thought about the ramifications of the shot and everything that goes with it. Players nowadays are getting huge contracts and endorsement deals all before they even set foot on a basketball court. Even if the player turns out to be either a bust or an injury-riddled player, the team invests tons of money into him. Does 15,000+ loud fans cheering or booing at you and your season on the line truly change the outcome of the shot. I do not think so. Either it goes in or it does not go in, simple as that. It is amazing to me the amount of money some players demand and actually receive. Too many years of inflated contracts led to 2011-2012 NBA lockout, and did it really fix the broken model of overpay, overpay, & overpay. I think not. The fans should be partially blamed for the problem as we keep putting money into our favorite teams and athletes who help out the owners bottom dollar in what can be paid out to the players. It is like a catch 22 scenario, as we love to watch and support our teams but with the economy still in the pits and just about every person hurting for money it hard to justify the money the athletes receive. I made that free throw shot just like the "superstars" do but my modest income will not be affected by it. Someday professionals that are actually underappreicated in the healthcare, law enforcement, government, and just about any other job will hopefully get the respect and income to match their hard work and dedication. In conclusion it is a simple Yes to professional athletes being overpaid. 


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Friday, April 12, 2013

Mission Statement

Welcome. You have stumbled upon my little slice of sports heaven. My brand is kthompson2k11 sports and I plan on providing my followers with up to date sports news, insight with analysis and off the wall sports "taboo" pieces. Unlike some of those large blog sites that have their parent companies holding their hands and telling them what to say or not to say, I plan on giving the readers the real sports stories and as unbiased as possible. The theme of my sports blog is all things related to the Big Four of the sports world in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and seasonally talks about college football. My target audience is both the male and female demographic with ages ranging from 5 to 95 years old. Basically showing if you love sports it does not matter what your age or sex is, kthompson2k11 sports is here for them. Having easy Internet access to sports stories in this digital age, I feel that tackling stories outside the national sports scene would be the best use of my time. It seems like some of the real issues facing the sports leagues are continually brushed under the rug and ignored until a lockout or labor dispute rears it ugly head around. As technology is changing the ways we interact with the different sports, kthompson2k11 sports is connected with all of the social media outlets and updates can be seen from any of my sites as I have them all working together.