professional basketball
10
1.8
- noun
- /prəˈfɛʃənl ˈbæskɪtˌbɔl/
:
baloncesto profesional
- Many young athletes dream of playing professional basketball in the NBA.
- women's professional basketball
- professional basketball league
- professional basketball players
Without those guardrails, it's like trying to play a professional basketball game without referees and having players call their own fouls.
- Without those guardrails, it's like trying to play a professional basketball game without referees and having players call their own fouls.
- I had these dreams of playing professional basketball wasn't wasn't good enough.
Examples
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The present study tested the relationship between learned helplessness and professional basketball performance in the playoffs.
Academic text (1996) -
A whole lot of players have come through professional basketball in the ABA and NBA.
Blog text (2) -
I thought this was a professional basketball team.
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I wish I could play professional basketball!
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I play professional basketball for the Chicago Bulls.
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Women's professional basketball in the United States has a relatively short history.
Academic text (1998) -
He's the most decorated and accomplished head coach in the history of professional basketball.
Blog text (19) -
Regardless, women's professional basketball still had difficulty catching on in America.
Academic text (1998) -
Also, in 1976, the first women's professional basketball league was planned, but it never materialized.
Academic text (1998) -
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the best all-around center in the history of college and professional basketball!
Blog text (8)
How Professional
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1.8
1
4.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'professional' (paid/occupational) modifies 'basketball' (the sport), so the combined meaning — basketball played for pay rather than as an amateur — follows immediately from the constituents. This adjective+noun pattern is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both words should readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Professional basketball combines professional (meaning 'paid') and basketball (the game). When teams began to pay players instead of playing just for fun, the phrase came to mean 'basketball played as a job' rather than 'playing for fun'.