By: Abigail Sun

LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Tom Brady, Kevin Durant, Serena Williams; these are athletes you are sure to have heard of before. You might have also seen kids walking around in Curry 5’s (basketball shoes for kids and adults) or wearing Durant’s jersey, or have heard teenagers say, “I want to be like LeBron James.” This illustrates a common occurrence: aspiring athletes, regardless of their age, looking up to their role models as soon as they are introduced to the sport. What their role model does affects how an aspiring athlete plays, talks, and even how they act off the court, such as their mannerisms.

LeBron James is arguably the most famous athlete to ever grace a basketball court. Growing up in a small town in Ohio, he fought through poverty, an absent father, and unstable housing. Despite these problems, he worked tremendously hard for his place in the National Basketball Association, or NBA, and is now considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time by many. James, however, has not allowed the fame and money to overshadow his generous heart and memories of a tough upbringing. Just recently, James founded the “I Promise” School in his hometown of Akron. Designed to give at-risk youth a better education, he provides them with well-paid and well-supplied teachers, free breakfast, lunch and dinner, and so much more. The Akron community thanks James for saving kids from the streets and giving them essentially a “new life.” This act dubbed him as one of the greatest players ever, in the sense that he gave back to the community that gave him so much. The “I Promise” School brought a lot of attention to James’ name, earning a lot of respect for him. Kids started paying more attention to James, and young athletes started wish they had his athleticism and his talent, more so than before. Parents can sleep at night knowing their child is looking up to someone who is such an amazing person.

Another famous athlete named Kevin Durant, better known as KD, was presented the 2017-18 Season-long NBA Cares Community Assist Award. This is a prestigious award and he was given this based on his local and national charity work. KD, a long time advocate of the Boys and Girls Club of America, also helped raise funds for the NorCal fire relief fund, participated in the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and took a trip to D.C and take students to the National Museum of African American History and Culture with his teammates. The Kevin Durant Foundation also helps young athletes around the world, building outdoor basketball courts in India and Taiwan and more. Young athletes look up to him and follow his incredible example of leadership. His skills as an outstanding athlete makes others respect him and admire his work.

Teenagers pay attention to the media. It is inevitable. When the media is constantly covering an athlete’s opinions on different types of issues, teenagers tend take a bias towards their favorite athletes and adopt their beliefs. This makes athletes very influential in the modern world where things they say can be exaggerated, twisted, and fed into the mouths of young athletes. On the court and off, kids tend to wear their favorite player’s clothing or shoe line; for example, Curry’s, LeBron’s, or Kyrie’s. You will see their brands plastered on sides of buildings, marketing posters, on a teen’s shirt, etc. They also tend to imitate their moves until they are able to use it in a game, making someone say, “Wow, that was like Curry!” Off the court, kids follow their role model’s behavior and mannerisms, from the way they walk to the way they talk. For this reason, it is highly crucial that star athletes are looking up to superstars such as James and KD and not to others who lack any form of social grace and compassion towards humanity. The only role model someone should look up to is a person they can learn something positive from, whether it’s attitude, skill, or work ethic. If your role model has a huge platform they can use for good but don’t, what is the point of trying to learn something from them? Respectively, everyone has something that is worth learning from, but not everyone deserves to be an overall role model for other people, especially young athletes.