The long-awaited beginning of the NBA season has reached us.

Every year around the end of October, basketball fans get excited about the tip-off of the upcoming NBA season.  The excitement continues throughout the NBA season, from the beginning of November to the middle of July. The players in the NBA endure a grueling 82-game season.  At the end of the regular season, teams look to advance through the playoffs to the NBA Finals.  “Even though my team is struggling right now, I still get pumped up for the upcoming season each and every year because I love the game of  basketball,” said Austin Dean, a Bob Jones student and dedicated fan of the Boston Celtics.

Marcus Johnson, another student at Bob Jones, believes “there are only about six teams that have a realistic chance at making the NBA Finals, because. . .all of the stars are on the same teams.”  Marcus Johnson does not like that many of the best players of the NBA find their ways onto only a few teams.  He thinks that this does not give several other teams viable chances at competing for championships.

Cory Isbell, another student at Bob Jones, is okay with this distribution of the NBA’s best players. “I think it is okay for them to do that, but it is not good for the NBA, because only a few can get all of the Elite players,” he said.

There are many high school basketball players who hope to be admitted to colleges with division-1 basketball programs.  Some even plan on playing in the NBA after college.  Many students at Bob Jones watch the NBA, hoping to someday join the ranks of the players they see on television.

We act as if we know which teams will win the championship this year, but the outcome of the season is largely unpredictable.  After all, the players in the NBA are professionals, and all of them are willing to do whatever they can to reach the 2013 NBA Finals.

Those of us watching at home can dream to attain the status that the athletes on television have achieved.  Who knows?  Maybe some of us will make it to the NBA.