text: There have been people who have excelled in their sport and had a bright future ahead of them until they faced a career ending injury to disable them from playing again. Habits start in middle school. You must have a good work ethic to focus on schoolwork along with athletics. This prepares you for high school and college, where the schools are much more serious about maintaining a good grade. Players are suspended often in sports, especially college basketball, for being unsatisfactory in their work. Yet again, the students might have a bright future, but one little slip can ruin a whole sports career. You need something to back that up. For example, Greg Oden, an NBA player, is injured very badly and has only played in about five games in two seasons. The team he is on might let him go and he will not have a good job because he does not have a degree from college. He should have thought about his grades more. They are important even though he thought that he had a star career ahead of him.