Playing basketball and getting an education for it or earning a living doing it. What could be better? I'm going to talk very briefly about what it takes to play basketball in high school, college and at the professional level.

Basketball Training Tips - What does it take to play basketball?

Height?

Some people would say the first requirement to play basketball is height. I say they are wrong. I've seen basketball players that are 5'3', 5'5", 5'7" and 5'10" in the NBA and in other professional leagues. Height is a nice thing to have if you want to play basketball but you don't have to be 6'4" to play. If you are in the 5'6" to 6'4" range you do have to be fast, you have to be a very good ball handler and court-vision doesn't hurt. Being fast is not something that is learned but being a good ball handler can be learned with hours of practice, and making smart passes and having court-vision can be learned by playing as the point guard in most of your games.

Passion

To play basketball and to be considered good or above average the first thing you need is a passion for it. You need to really love the game of basketball. If you feel that natural high that comes with contributing to a team win and if you really hate losing, and when you loose you practice twice as hard the next day so that it doesn't happen again you qualify as having a passion for basketball. If you want to play the best competition and show them that you're better than them then you are in the right track.

Listening and Practice

If you're 6'8" and very talented and have a real chance of being a star but you can't listen and you think you're above being coached then you will probably end up wasting your talent and missing your chance. On the other hand if you're 5'8" and very talented and you listen and do everything your coach tells you to do and you practice every single day and you practice when you get home from practice and work hard you have a real chance at reaching your dream.

So basically all it takes to play at a high level is being able to listen, practice, practice and more practice ( pick up games, 21, high school games, league games) watch games on TV and learn the sport, read about the sport and understand what the great ones did to get to where they are. You need a passion for it and to make it to best league in the world you will also need a little bit of luck, if you don't make it to the NBA don't worry because if basketball is your thing there are thousands of leagues that pay their best players hundreds of thousands of dollars to play the game, good luck and don't believe the height myth.