Assault on the Courts

Assault on the Courts

Fighting has become a habitual event seen in professional basketball. There has been a consistent decline in professionalism and morals predominately in young athletes. Before the Ron Artest event, most players were idolized as gods and portrayed as today’s heroes. However, a shocking phenomenon has risen as newer and younger athletes have entered the “new” NBA. Professionalism, morals, and integrity have taken a back seat to greed and selfishness.

On November 1st, 2004, during the Pacers vs. Pistons game, the game of basketball changed forever. A drunken fan in the stands launched a beer at Indiana Pacer, Ron Artest. 6’7” Ron Artest rushed the stands, brutally beating an innocent bystander.

Around the same time as the Ron Artest ordeal, there began a slew of unacceptable occurrences of fighting and foul play amongst basketball players. The reasons for these changes in behavior seem to have intricate and distinct underlying reasons. These behaviors compromise the attitude our country is built on. The behavior of today’s athlete is a direct reflection on the attitude of today’s youth. The total disregard for authority is becoming the norm. Respect for teachers in all levels of education is at an all-time low.

One of the most significant reasons for this occurrence is due to the fact that players are “celebrities” and feel invincible; they assume that they will be able to escape punishment proposed by courts and coaches. How have players attitudes changed so drastically? The basketball players, who make it into the NBA, have been pampered for the majority of their career going all the way back to high school. Coaches have given them special treatment, because they have more talent and enable the coaches to win games. College coaches often provide these favored players with just about anything that they wish. Egos are constantly stroked at the college level to try and convince these players to stay in school. Why? Because money is the bottom line and these players bring in the mighty dollar. There is extreme pressure from the alumni who donate millions of dollars a year to big time universities to win. Presidents of these universities then apply pressure to athletic directors to hire coaches that win. The compensation for these college coaches has risen substantially in the past few years. This increases the pressure on coaches to win and win now, thus more coaches are sacrificing morals and education to accommodate the player that helps them succeed, at any cost necessary.

After this recent attack on a fan, coaches and officials are still lenient on these specific players. Even smaller issues are overlooked or “swept under the rug”. This has given the impression to these athletes that they are invincible. They have begun testing deeper waters. As coaches start allowing more and more negative activities to “slide”, they are demonstrating to their players that unlawful acts are acceptable. As an example, four weeks ago John Chaney, the coach of Temple University, admitted to authorizing an attack on a player of the opposite team. This Temple University coach sent Nehemiah Ingram purposely on the court to hit St. Joseph’s John Bryant. John Bryant acquired a broken arm due to this encounter. Later that week, Chris Paul from Wake Forest hit Julius Hodge from North Carolina State purposely in the genitals while fighting for the ball. Instead of taking a stand and suspending Paul, who happens to be Wake Forests best player, for the season, the university instead opted to suspend him one game and allow him to participate in the most important and lucrative college tournament of the year.

A handful of players use the method of inappropriate activity as a way to capture publicity and booster their image in the hip hop world. This rowdy behavior attracts basketball buffs to avert attention to them in hopes that their name will become popular, thus enabling them to receive endorsements from shoe companies who promote their product to inner city America. The athletes count on their conflict