In a world where getting quickly from A-Z is the preference, sports that require time, patience, practice, study, and execution are less attractive options—especially when the sports themselves are slow and plodding.
Four hundred fifty million people worldwide play basketball–so says FIBA (the Federation of International Basketball Associations), and the sport has an estimated 850 million fans across the globe. Participation numbers are 65 million for baseball and 60 million for golf with fan numbers at 500 and 450 million, respectively.
An 8-year-old boy learns how to swing a baseball bat (photo, 123RF.com)
And while the numbers are on the rise for hoops, they’re on the decline for baseball and golf. One study found significant participation declines in Little League baseball. Another study found that golf participation declined by 10 million players from 2002-2016.
Each of those sports is expensive to play, slow-paced, and—in the case of golf—takes considerable time to play. But there’s another trait those two sports share in common that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Golf and baseball are challenging games to master. It takes a lot of time, patience, and study to ‘get good.’ That assertion doesn’t apply to basketball.
Let’s look at two examples.
Alex Faedo is a pro baseball player in the Detroit Tigers farm system. Faedo, a starting pitcher, starred in high school and, then, college. He played four years at the University of Florida, where he earned over twenty awards for pitching proficiency. In his senior year, he led the Gators to a national baseball championship and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
Where is Faedo now? He’s going through the minor league system—as almost all aspiring MLB baseball players do—having made multiple stops at Class A and AA over the past two summers. There’s no guarantee the Faedo will ever make the majors. But he couldn’t make the jump from college to pro immediately. Most baseball players don’t.
Oscar Tshiebwe (34) rebounds against Pitt. He had a double-double (20 points/17 rebounds) in his second collegiate game (photo, Dominion-Post)
Contrast Faedo’s circumstance with Oscar Tshiebwe’s Tshiebwe, who didn’t start playing basketball until 2014, went from non-player to high school star–a 5-star college recruit and McDonald’s All-America. Today, Tshiebwe is a college freshman and frontline basketball player for West Virginia University. He’s averaging 22 minutes a game with 11 points and ten rebounds a contest.
Tshiebwe, a star destined for the NBA, will enter the NBA Draft soon—perhaps after this year or (more likely) after his sophomore year. Very few players of Tschiebwe’s caliber play four years of college ball, as Faedo did. Oscar is ‘too good’ to stay.
What’s the point? I think what I’ve written helps explain (at least in part) why basketball is popular with kids these days, while sports like baseball and golf are in decline. In a world where getting quickly from A-Z is the preference, sports that require time, patience, practice, study, and execution are less attractive options—especially when the sports themselves are slow and plodding.
I’m not dissing basketball and extolling baseball and golf. What I am saying is that the road to stardom in basketball is shorter, wider, and less hilly than it is in two other sports.
