HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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In the 21st century, high school basketball players only care about one thing: going viral. Ten years ago, if a kid were to throw down an emphatic dunk in the middle of a game, he would be excited for adding two points onto their team's total. In today's world, instead of running back on defense, the first thing a kid does is look around to make certain that someone caught their outlandish play on video. This thought process stems from “highlight culture,” a term used to describe the combination of social media and high school basketball. Highlight culture is ultimately ruining high school basketball. Social media is driving young athletes to care more about performing highlight plays rather than focusing on fundamental skills. As a result, social media is detrimentally impacting the careers of young basketball players.

Going viral is all that matters in today's basketball world. Flashy dunks, behind the back passes, and absurd ankle breakers are high school basketball players goals. Basketball social media accounts with millions of followers such as Ballislife, Overtime, and SLAM, post clips like these daily. They create a false narrative that if you are a good basketball player, you should be attempting plays like these in game, even at the expense of your own team. Mac McClung, a viral sensation that caught the basketball world by storm for his crazy in games dunks in 2018, stated that "’You could have 30 points, or you could have a dunk and it goes viral,’ McClung says. ‘The kids want the dunk’” (Lee). In an age where social media dominates our lives, it is hard for kids to focus on winning when camera crews line up on baselines across the country, ready to capture and post the most crazy and ridiculous highlights that occur within the game they are filming. Writer Nick Dimengo states that athletes will “go out of their way to do something in the heat of competition knowing once fans record it on their phone, it will break the Internet—regardless of consequence to the player's team during the game.” 

In a poll conducted by this author, with over 1400 viewers, ranging from the age of 10-16, nearly 60% of kids across the world backed the statement made by Dimengo, by saying that they would rather go viral and lose than win a game! The poll offered each responder the choice to choose between two options. Option one stated that the player would play a good game, scoring 12-15 points and leave with a win, while option two stated that the player would lose the game, but would perform a viral play. The fact that nearly 60% of voters would rather perform a viral play than win a game shows the exact reason why high school basketball is becoming a highlight filled and fastbreak frenzy, rather than a competitive and fundamental game.

Because of Highlight Culture’s influence on high school basketball, social media has started to celebrate insane highlights rather than skilled players. In games across the country, kids could score 35 points, leading their team to victory, yet one of their teammates, who had a crazy ankle breaker, is the only person anyone is talking about after the game. Fans and players are beginning to focus on a player's ability to dunk on someone or cross someone up rather than on their fundamental skills because of Highlight Culture.

In an interview with Mike Schmitz, one of the most well known NBA scouts across the country, he talked about the problem with social media when it comes to evaluating skill on the basketball floor. After attending the NBA combine, Schmitz saw posts on Twitter and Instagram showing “a video of that player having one highlight and the caption being, 'So-and-so absolutely killed in front of every NBA team today’ yet, Schmitz says, ‘From our perspective, we're saying, 'Wait a minute. This guy just laid an egg and was completely underwhelming to NBA scouts’” (Lee). Highlight culture is truly creating the false narrative that performing insane plays during a game means you are a good player. 

Mikey Williams, the biggest high school basketball star at the moment, is a perfect example of this. Williams is currently ranked as the third best prospect in his class (“ESPN Basketball Recruiting'').  Because of his highlight filled game, fans across the world constantly see videos of Williams on Instagram, whether it be a video of him dunking on someone or breaking a kids’ ankles. The videos receive millions upon millions of views, with kids commenting, “he’s the next LeBron James'' or “He could play in the NBA right now!” When ESPN and other recruiting sites released their national rankings, fans were shocked and confused when the kid everyone was calling the next “LeBron James'' was not even the best player in his high school class. Based on how players helped their team, Williams should not even be a top ten player in his class. Every player in the ESPN top ranked players list led their team to at least a top 50 ranking in their state. On the other hand, Williams' high school team the year prior was not even ranked within the top 150 within California (“Maxpreps”). How is it that someone can be considered the third best player in the world, yet his team was not even ranked within the top 150 teams in the state? It all comes down to Highlight Culture. If you see a kid with over 2.6 million followers (more than most NBA players) on Instagram, solely from him attempting and completing crazy plays, why wouldn’t you think he was the best player in his class? 

This is why social media is ruining basketball. Anthony Davis, the coach of Crossroads High School, one of the best high school basketball teams in the world, makes the point that, “Instagram isn't an accurate representation of how basketball is being played. Because of highlights, no one ever misses a shot” (Lee). On Instagram and Twitter, kids only see the highlights. Across the world, there are children that want to be like Mikey Williams because of what they see on social media, when in reality, he is not even that good.

Ultimately, Highlight Culture is placing absurd expectations on high school basketball players across the country. Ten years ago, very few people would ever be labeled the next LeBron James or Michael Jordan, because without social media, only the very best high school basketball players would even be talked about. In an article for the Atlantic, Taylor Lorenz states that, “Sometimes a highly notable player like LeBron James would break through to the mainstream, but until they reached the top levels of college ball or the NBA, most young players had no ability to reach a national audience or establish themselves as a stand-alone brand.” Today however, social media is causing young kids to be titled “a future superstar” without even graduating high school.

The first instance of this was 2013, with a kid by the name of Seventh Woods. Woods was a viral sensation. Hoopmixtape, one of the biggest basketball media sites at the time, uploaded a Youtube video of Woods with the title “Seventh Woods Is The BEST 14 Year Old In The Country! CRAZY Athlete” (“Seventh Woods”). The video totaled over sixteen million views because of how exciting he was to watch, yet Woods never achieved the level expectations of being the “BEST” player in the country and quickly faded out of the spotlight after not even averaging more than 2 points a game in college (Lee). Following Woods, players that dominated social media because of their likeability, such as Kyree Walker, Trevon Duval, Diamond Stone, Emmanuel Mudiay, Stanley Johnson and others were at the top of their classes either early in their high school careers or all throughout high school because of how entertaining they were to watch, not because of how skilled they were. This ultimately ruined their careers because they were not good enough to be ranked that highly. Instead, it was their highlights and absurd dunks or crossovers that made them so popular. Because of the expectations placed onto them at a young age, they never had the opportunity to develop. 

Highlight Culture has completely transformed the way kids play basketball across the country. Because of social media's impact on children during the 21st century, the game of basketball has become less about winning and more about highlight plays. Whether it be by causing kids to only focus on going viral or by calling barely above average kids “the next LeBron” because of his ability to “jump out of the gym,” false narratives about high schoolers and how basketball should be played are ruining the game as a whole. 

 

Bibliography

Dimengo, Nick. “10 Ways Social Media Ruined Sports.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3 

Oct. 2017. Accessed 10 Sept. 2020.

 

This article by Nick Dimengo helps illustrate the importance of how kids will do anything in order to get a highlight play captured on video. Nick Dimengo states in the article shows how kids and professional athletes will put their team at risk, just to have their highlight play on video, even if it means that their team could face “consequences” due to the athlete being unable to complete the play. 

 

“ESPN Basketball Recruiting - Terrific 25 Player Rankings.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 

2020. Accessed Nov 16. 2020.

 

This source was helpful because it shows the national rankings for basketball players in the 2023 high school class. It allowed me to reference and compare the top basketball players to Mikey Willams.

 

Lee, Joon. “Instagram Is the New Mixtape for High School Hoops.” ESPN, ESPN Internet 

Ventures, 19 Aug. 2020. Accessed 10 Sept. 2020.

 

This Article was helpful to me because it gave me a multitude of information on my topic. The article had interviews with Mac Mclung and other people that allowed me to quote verbal information in my paper that dealt with the subject of highlights being more important than winning. It also talked about how Instagram and other social media sites are changing basketball.

 

Lorenz, Taylor. “The Instagram Stars of High-School Basketball.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media 

Company, 18 May 2018. Accessed 10 Sept. 2020.

This article by Taylor Lorenz was extremely useful because it talks about how Instagram is creating nationally known stars. It illustrates how back in the day, you would only be known if you were a generational talent, yet now any player that is an above average basketball player will have tons and tons of followers and clout.

“MaxPreps High School Sports.” MaxPreps, 2020. Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.

Maxpreps was a helpful site because it allowed me to verify information regarding team rankings for national prospects. This source gave me the ability to compare Mikey Williams, an internet star, to other top prospects in his high school class.

 

“Seventh Woods Is The BEST 14 Year Old In The Country! CRAZY Athlete.” Youtube 

Uploaded by Hoopmixtape, 18 Apr. 2013. Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.

 

This video source helped illustrate how highschool basketball players are being overrated by the media. Seventh Woods, who is no longer relevant in today's basketball world, managed to receive over 16 million views on his youtube mixtape.