Basketball position

Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world. Especially the U.S. is the root of Basketball history and has the highest level basketball association which is called "NBA". So, most of famous basketball players are from the U.S., such Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Lebron James, Scottie Pippen and Shaquille O'neal. They are known as excellent players in the world, but can you distinguish them in the court when they are playing and what skills they are good at? It is hard for most people, but don't worry let this article to tell you the basic knowledge of basketball players.
First of all you have to know there has five positions for players in a team, point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center. But mainly it can be distinguished from three positions, guard, forward and center. Each of them plays different role and needs different skills in the court. And we can use our body parts to simple explain the difference. Guard is like our brain, forward is like four limbs and center is like our trunk.
Guard is a launcher in the offense and a first line of defense. As a brain in a team, they have to be smart and calm in any situation. Comparing to other players, usually they are shorter and more agile. Because their stature is their weakness, in order to overcome this, they usually are good at dribbling and shooting. Their main attack measures are using their speed and good dribbling to confuse rival's defense formulation and find a good shooting opportunity to get an easy play for themselves or teammates. In a defensive way they have to disturb and steal rival guard's passing in order to ruin rival's offensive tempo. The representative personages in this position are Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.
Forward is a terminator in the offense and a stopper in the defense. their physical ability is the best in a team, they are not the tallest but they jump the highest, they are not the most agile but they run the fastest. Because of their physical ability, usually they are an arrow of scores and most of them are the highest score player in a team. They can score everywhere no matter inside or outside, they like to challenge the defender and defeat them. On the other hand they also have to defense the rival like them and it is hard to be perfect in anything, so some of them are good at defense and some of them are good at offense. The representative personages in this position are Lebron James and Scottie Pippen.
Center is a giant in the court. They are always the biggest, tallest and strongest in a team, their main job is to cover their teammates, bombing of the basket, protect the rebound and to be the last line of defense. unlike other position using their physical ability or basketball skills, center is a real warrior, they actually use their body to against the rival in order to protect the paint area. They usually stand near the basket, so when they have an opportunity, they like to slam dunk and audience like that too. As a defender they have to defense and give a big block to the rival who passed his teammates and try to score in the paint area. Like forward, they usually have two types of player, defense and offense. The representative personages in this position are Shaquille O'neal and Dwight Howard.
From the beginning to 1980's center is the main role in a team, having a good center is a necessary requirement for a team who wants to chase a championship. But in 80's when Michael Jordan came out, he changed everything, he was the only one who could get many champions without a good center. And nowadays forward is getting important than before when Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant these kind of players came out. Nobody knows which position is going to takeover next generation, but we just have to know it will be a good game and enjoy this exciting game is enough.