My love for sports started at a young age. I began playing basketball at the age of 6 and played all the way up through high school until I graduated. I still play but not at the college level; mostly open runs at the rec, intramurals and summer leagues. I also played football from about the age of 10 until 17 when I decided to stop playing so that I could focus on basketball. I started playing tennis in 10th grade at the age of 15 and quickly caught on. Tennis remains a love of mine and I still play for fun with friends and semi-competetively in summer leagues.
During the first day of class (Tuesday, August 25th) we were asked how we define sport. In my opinion, sport is a game that is competetive in nature, has a clear set of rules, a clear set of time and space, has an obstacle (which can be another competetor, or even time), is institutionalized and requires physical and mental excertion. For example, poker cannot be considered a sport because it has no physicality involved. The same can be said for cup staking (which is very cool by the way) and chess. I think understanding the definition of sport is very important for a person like myself, a Sport Communications major. Hopefully, I will be involved with sports on a daily basis when I get a job so knowing the defintion of what I do is extremely important.
During class we were asked to chosen one male and one female athlete we would love to watch. Naturally, as a huge basketball fan I picked one of my all-time favorite players, Kobe Bryant (yes, I would chose Michael any day but I wanted to keep my athletes current.) The reason I would chose to see Kobe is because of his determination and work ethic. You either love him or hate him, but either way you can't deny how good the guy is. He does work, just check out the movie. I mean come on, Lil Wayne even wrote a song about him! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCH-owsrC-A)
The female athlete I chose was Serena Williams.
I have to show love to tennis and if you want to watch tennis at the highest level in the women's division, you watch Serena, period. Her and Venus are so dominating it's ridiculous. Not only is she a great player, she has a back story that sounds like it was written for a movie. Coming from Compton, her and Venus being coached by their father (who isn't a great tennis player) and dominating tennis for as long as she has is nothing less than inspiring.That's about it for now. Until next time, stay classy.
Kobe Bryant is a great player. I think he is the 2nd best player of all time behind Michael Jordan. I was so happy that the Lakers won the championship this year... I see everyone likes Serena including me. I have the same favorite three sports as you, basketball, football, and tennis.
ReplyDeleteHi CJ,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your sports background and interests in specific male and female athletes. I can understand your selection of both Kobe and Serena. I am hoping that Serena wins the US Open again this year. If she keeps playing the way she has in her early matches, I expect her to win! I was not familiar with the song that Lil Wayne wrote about Kobe, but then Lil Wayne is not someone to whom I listen on a regular basis. I did recognize the voice of Stephen A. Smith in the background. If you like Serena and Venus, I would recommend reading Serena's new book, On the line. As I may have mentioned in class, I will assign the chapter on Indian Wells for class.
Since you have a communications focus, I wondered if you follow Twitter? I am really impressed by how much current information I can find on it--including articles from all over the world. I strongly recommend getting a Twitter account if you do not already have one.
This is a nice start to your blog. I look forward to reading future entries.
Dr. Spencer