The wealth of basketball is locked up in the NBA, NCAA, FIBA, Euroleague, and Nike. There are smaller leagues and basketball companies around the world, but these five basketball organizations run the show. These organizations offer the largest salaries to players, executives and supporting staff. Historically, an athlete in the United States has to graduate from high school and typically attend and play basketball in college, but we are beginning to see a trend where elite teenage talent in the United States will choose international basketball and getting paid over playing college basketball. The exercising of their freedom of choice is encouraging, but there is a potential backlash that must be anticipated. A larger population of young basketball players will become deluded that they too can avoid college and therefore begin to devalue high school. All the while, the NBA prepares to increase its minimum age limit to 20 years old.
In 2007, more than one in five blacks dropped out of high school, a dropout rate of 21%. A 2009 report by Alliance for Excellent Education stated that 71% of all students graduate from high school on time with a regular diploma; however, only 50% of African-Americans and Hispanics students earn diplomas. College enrollment for African-Americans and Hispanics has increased in recent years, but the increase in college enrollment represents only a fraction of the African-Americans and Latinos who attended high school during the reporting period. The fact is, for the average urban youth graduating from high school is a tremendous accomplishment particularly considering the distractions and dangers in our schools, our communities and at times, in our homes.
There are approximately 7,177 men's basketball scholarships and 9,285 women's basketball scholarships available in the United States. The average cost of college is $25,000.00 a year (taking the aggregate of in-state, out of state and private colleges and universities), which means the economic value of all the basketball scholarships in the United States is almost a half-billion dollars, $411,550,000.00, a year.
The lifetime earning difference between a high school graduate and college graduation is about $450,000.00.
Under the current economic and administrative structures of the dominant basketball institutions, a large portion of athletically talented youth and young adults cannot afford to participate in the sport they love. Our objective is to leverage "Basketball-the-Remix" to create economic and educational opportunities for this "basketball" disenfranchised part of our community. Holcombe Rucker used basketball as a community activism tool to build contributing citizens, their communities and send over 700 urban youth to college through athletic scholarships. "Basketball-the-Remix" is taking Rucker's example and providing a modern approach to "Each One Teach One" using basketball to secure academic scholarships and provide life skills education and employment opportunities.
Sport is big business but not for African-Americans urban communities. "However, the economic activities of sports in modern society are not just bigger than ever, they have also become socially significant."
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the measure of a country's economic output. The Sports Industry represents approximately 2% of the United States GDP, contributing upwards of $152 billion annually. Sport is the 11th largest contributor to our country's GDP. The majority of the revenue generated by Sports is from recreational participation. Entertainment makes up 30% of the Sport Industry. Basketball has over 450 million participants globally according to a survey conducted by FIBA; the more than 35 million Americans that participate in basketball make it the most popular recreational team sport in the country.
Basketball is an amazing game because, in many ways, the game has fulfilled the inventor's original intent. Millions of lives are positively impacted daily through basketball. As American as the game of baseball, basketball is uniquely and fairly associated with the black community, black culture, and the black athlete. Basketball was a platform for civil rights. Basketball is a platform to access higher education. Basketball is a platform to travel the world. Basketball is a platform to educate the youth. Basketball is a platform to build and strengthen communities. Basketball is a platform to create employment and participate in the economy of Sport. Unfortunately, the love the black community has for basketball and the economic scales are out of balance.
Since the formation of the National Basketball Association in 1949, there have been only two major professional basketball franchises in the United States with majority ownership held by an African-American. Those teams are the Harlem Globetrotters and the Charlotte Bobcats. Interestingly enough the rise of the NBA also marked the death of an era of the black-owned, independent basketball franchises. An important fact to keep in mind, as an African-American watching the NBA, is that the league could have been founded with a black-owned franchise in the Harlem Renaissance.
For the last 60-years, the majority of African-Americans participating in the economy of basketball are students, contractors or employees. The titans have dominated and influenced the entire industry. This influence has minimized the opportunities for talented young urbanites through the policies and attitudes that are prevalent in today's basketball industry.
The only way for young urban athletes and the Streetball industry to grow from thousands of dollars of revenue to billions of dollars in revenue is to increase our economic participation in the sports industry. Increasing economic participation requires the creation of something new, something with greater value so significant it can win the hearts, imaginations, and eyeballs of our communities and the nation at large. I believe "Basketball-the-Remix can serve as the bridge to move the disjointed Streetball industry from summertime leagues, summer tournaments, and tours into a year-round niche basketball industry.
