The Role Of Alienation Of Labour In Professional Sports

Alienation of Labour in Sports and Hoop Dreams
For the vast majority of people, sports is a medium for enjoyment as it provides a way to escape from the drudgery of everyday life. Although professional sports may seem fun and games for athletes, in reality, professional athletes are like most workers in a capitalist society, alienated labourers, with little or no control over their conditions of work, thus separated from their product (Abdel-Shehid and Kalman-Lamb, 2011). Alienation of labour occurs in the process of maximizing output when the workers become alienated or separated from the work that they do. (Abdel-Shehid and Kalman-Lamb, 2011). Human labour that is transformed into a product such as shoes is known as commodity. An athlete’s

Hence, playgrounds in the blackest and poorest neighborhoods are considered the finest places to find black talent. Arthur Agee and William Gates are seen as a commodity by the recruiter and the coaches, who measure their value only by how well they can play basketball. In order to be recruited, a player has to be more than just good, they need to be aggressive, subservient to their coaches and exceed academically. Arthur started off playing on the freshman team, but his skills did not develop as fast or in the manner that the coach intended. Whereas, William’s performance was proved to be excellent, hence he played on the varsity team which was one of Illinois’ top ranked team. William was seen to be a valuable commodity, hence the coach himself found funding for William and the remainder of his tuition was paid off. In comparison to Arthur, since he was not able to pay for his tuition and did not receive any funding, he was locked out of St. Joseph’s. The coach did not provide additional funding to Arthur because he did not consider him star

He realizes that basketball is more than just a game, it’s a way of business. He is seen as machine playing basketball rather than as human being. The NIKE basketball camp is another way to revitalize their dream of playing in the NBA or becoming a celebrity which in turn will exploit the athletes further. The players are led to believe that they will become stars, and for this they accept working conditions that are often harmful to their bodies and render them powerless in the labour process (Abdel-Shehid and Kalman-Lamb, 2011). This can be seen in Arthur who did not experience alienation of labour, hence he still want to pursue his dream of NBA