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Shirley's Essays: Lives - 004: Basketball and Team Spirit


Very often, when I turn on the TV, there are some programms about NBA. So, I often ask myself that why basketball is welcomed by more and more people in the world? I think maybe for its particular skill, strong team spirit, and   the functions of its-help people to tend to strong-bodied and tough-minded?

Yes. Basketball is a kind of skill sports. It is never a sport that as long as people have strong physical force    could do well. It needs the athletes have high skill to hold the ball, to run, to shoot and to organise the attacking and defending.... For example when an athlete is running with the ball,he must take notice of the post of his partners at any moment, to prepare to pass his ball to another at any time. At the same time, he must protect his ball not be snatched by the opposing athletes, and even he must think whom he passes could be advantage to shoot, etc. As you know, the speed is so fast, the distance is so short, he have to do,to think, to judge so many things when he is running with the ball, if he could not have a high skill, could he do all of things well? I am sure,he couldn't.

Then how can he has the higher skill and technique? Answer could be only one,learning and learning, practice and practice. Just through the learning and practice in continuance,the functions of basketball are acted on the body of people, and add the health and steel oneself.In China, people describe the excellent actor or actress, "The playing for three minutes on the stage,need to be trained for three years." Basketball is same,every match is only one hour, then, athletes haveto be trained several hundred hours and even thousand hours on the sport ground. When we saw an athlete did a wonderful shoot from far away or a beautiful three steps shoot, could you think of how much sweat he had flown? Could you think of them had not been allowed to finish the training until they accomplished the purpose of every day? Could you think of how many athletes had wept for their hurt or pain? Just because of the hard work and strict training, both of the constitution and volition are trained and improved. That's why the excellent basketball athletes generally have strong volition and wonderful constitution.


Anyway, basketball is also a sport that needs very strong group or team spirit. It is a team sport, needs the cooperation of all the team members. Every member is one of the team. Everyone must follow the needing of the team, no matter he is taller or shorter, no matter his skill is higher or lower, no matter he is elder or newer.As long as he enters the team, he must obey the rules of the leader of the team and the order of the coach. If anyone wants to break the harmonious and solidarity of the team, it will bring the fail of all of the team. For instance, if the vanguard could not run in front, the line backer could not snatch the backboard ball, the center forward could not organise the attack and defense, then,they could give the opposing team a lot of opportunities to defeat oneself. So, basketball more stresses the team spirit, sometime the team spirit and cooperation spirit is more important than the personal skill.

I think, maybe because of the basketball con centrates personal skill, team spirit, to chasten volition, so it is being welcomed by more and more people. Do you think so?

--Shirley
Written on 28th.,May, 2000
Edited on 28th.,June,2005