Here’s Brandon Jennings With A Stripper

The top two stories on Sports Grid right now involve a stripper and drunken kids jumping in a lake, which is…entertaining! But in the interest of balance, I’d like to offer 5 reasons why big time sports are good for society:

1. Before most NBA games, the players from opposing teams embrace. Then they play with intensity and emotion for 48 minutes. Then they hug again. It’s a great lesson to everyone, including the kids who idolize them, that you can play fiercely but not personally. That you can be kind and friendly outside the game and be a tough competitor during it. And that you can show emotion to your friends in public. This true after NFL games, too. You can see that behavior mimicked all the time in youth sports. The self-protective stoicism among guys trying to be tough is no longer necessary.

2. In the 1970′s there was a fear that as NBA rosters got more black players, the popularity of the sport would decline. White people would just not be as interested in a sport with nearly all-black teams. But the truth is that as the NBA has gotten blacker, it has gone from a niche sport to a global juggernaut. Thirty years ago, the NBA finals were shown on tape delay – now there are live regular season games on TV almost every night and a whole network dedicated to the League. And in addition to fewer white players, there are more international players. As a general trend over the last 50 years, as the league as gotten blacker and more foreign, it has gotten more popular and valuable. Perhaps most telling, the Celtics roster is currently composed of fourteen black players and one white foreigner, and the team is as popular and beloved as ever in Boston.

If you’re interest in the other 3, check them at on the blog at TheBiggerHammerMovie site: http://www.thebiggerhammermovie.com/blog/2012/11/5-ways-pro-sports-are-better-they-used-be