One of the great aspects of sports that draws so many fans is the player’s passion. For this reason many sports fans prefer to follow college sports rather than professional sports, because in college sports there are deep rivalries, and the athletes are really playing for the love that they have for their sport, team and school. While professional athletes tend to view their sport more as a job. However it seems that there is another difference that separates professional athletes and collegiate athletes, and that is how they demonstrate their passion.
Collegiate athletes prove their worth on the field of play. Rarely do you ever hear about college athletes talking trash outside of the game. Yes you get the occasional tweet from a student-athlete hyping up a game, or a post-game press conference in which a collegiate athlete will speak his mind about a rivalry.
Yet it is becoming more and more common to see professional athletes giving a piece of their mind off the court, or allowing their passion or pride to get the best of them on the court. Within the last couple of weeks we’ve heard a bit of Lebron’s mind about karma getting to the Cavs. In the NFL, Seahawks QB Matt Hasellback and Jet’s cornerback Antonio Cromartie have exchanged threatening tweets, making national news. Even more recently Kevin Durant opened up in the post game press conference on his technical foul during the 1st quarter of Sunday’s game against the Heat. He got called for the T after exchange words with the Heat’s Chris Bosh. During the conference, when asked about the exchange, Durant said “He’s on a good team now, so he thinks he can talk a little bit”. Durant went on to say, “There’s a lot of fake tough guys in this league and he’s one of them.”
All this talk is child’s play to some of the other action that happened around the League this weekend. Notorious for his dirty play, Kevin Garnett lived up to his reputation, clearly hitting Phoenix’s Channing Frye in the groin. The Celtics registered a total of 6 technical fouls and two ejections, Garnett and coach Doc Rivers.
The Atlanta Hawks’ Josh Smith was fined $25,000 after making an obscene gesture during Atlanta’s win over the New York Knicks. In addition to the fine, Marvin Williams was suspended for two games and NY’s Shawne Willimas was suspended one game for a fistfight that erupted in their game Friday.
Professional athletes need to realize that it is far more profound to give a killer performance on the field or court than to talk trash or get out of control. They are role models and are paid to do their job of competing, and not talking trash. Yes, the rivalries and intense games are what make sports so great, but they need to be kept in control.
Good post. I feel like there are too many one and dones in college basketball for there to be real passion there. Most of the college players are just using their time playing division 1 ball only as a stepping stone to make it to the NBA, which for some, takes the passion out of playing.
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