Elite American boys' basketball players play a year-round schedule, including an intense round of summer leagues and tournaments, which only the fittest survive. This is necessary to garnering the attention of the national scouting network and college coaches. With no active national regulator or enforcement agency boys play in pressure situations and are evaluated on a number of criteria, including their ability to play through pain and/or with an injury. One's willingness to play through pain has become a positive attribute, a necessary ingredient to success. But it also drives young people to do damage to their bodies and play through pain risking more damage. Youth sport should not be seen in a vacuum. It is part of the bigger Sports Industrial Complex, in which young, black bodies are exploited for white gain.
