I don't like the NBA for the way they've treated the great game of college basketball. And some of the shoe company marketing that goes with sport is ridiculous such as the Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony campaigns. But I wouldn't paint the whole NBA a league of thugs. There's some fine role models in there like David Robinson and A.C. Green in the recent past to Allan Houston and Dwight Howard right now.
I don't know any of these players, so I'll gladly take your word. Now, if your son makes one of them a 'role model' or a 'hero', does he watch the games? Do the thugs play also? Is the ad driven media pouring ideas into the childs head that he otherwise wouldn't get?
Don't look now, but when a third of the first round draft choices have not even enrolled in college yet, it appears there's a developing trend to select even less socially mature kids to shower millions on, for what? Certainly not developed skills once fundamental to basketball.