“Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.”
—Scottie Pippin, a Hall of Famer who won six NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls playing beside Michael Jordan
7:57 P.M. [CT]
MJ sees Malcolm turning the corner with the ball. So he steps out to set a screen against Aaron Boyce, who’s guarding Malcolm. MJ times it just right, giving Aaron a real jolt on contact. Malcolm gets fouled driving to the basket by another Trojan. And once the play is stopped by a ref’s whistle, Aaron confronts MJ.
“You guys like those bullshit little screens, don’t you? You want to hurt somebody, right? That’s why our point guard’s on the bench,” spouts Aaron, getting up into MJ’s face. “You guys think you’re thugs.”
“We’re just playing the game hard. The way it’s supposed to be played,” MJ answers with just as much gas. “Maybe your squad’s too soft for us.”
That’s when a handful of players from each side pull the arguing pair apart.
“If we were balling outside in the park, without these refs, I’d show you what tough is, little boy,” adds Aaron, resisting his teammates’ restraint. “I’d lay down the kind of rules you guys don’t have the heart for. The kind of rules to make you go home early.”
“I’ll meet you there tomorrow,” says MJ, with Malcolm giving him an approving slap on the rump. “No cameras. No refs. Nothing. Just you, me, and a rock. Any way you want to get down.”
The two continue to exchange glares as Malcolm converts a pair of free throws and the Spartans take an 84–82 lead with 2:30 left to play.
Michael Jordan
Sociology Q205
Reaction Paper: Basketball Is Life!
(The Social Order of Street Ball)
Go anywhere that you’ll find an iron hoop attached to a backboard. It could be in a crowded city park or a sweat-filled gymnasium. You probably won’t have to stand around too long until you hear somebody say, “Basketball is life!”
The comparison is really not an overexaggeration, or the blind passion of some teenager who believes he is going to be a pro player and cash in on a multimillion-dollar contract one day.
Pickup or street basketball, which is almost always played without a coach or referee to enforce rules and regulations, is a social game that helps to build many of the qualities you need to excel in life.
How are those qualities developed in the players?
Because there is no power structure (coaches or refs), it is the players who build their own society and social order, establishing the rules, rewards, and punishments themselves on a 94-by-50-foot rectangular territory they’ve claimed.
Of course, if you’re already part of one of these self-governing pickup basketball packs, you know what I’m talking about. You understand that I purposely choose the word pack because each park, gym, or ballyard across the country has its own pecking order of perceived winners and losers, somebodies and nobodies, and every caliber of player in between.
Whether you play half-court (one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three) or full-court (five-on-five), you also understand that basketball skills are only a part of what you need to improve your position in the pack. You’ll need to hone other skills as well, including the ability to communicate and negotiate in a world where the sides can completely change every twenty minutes.
Here is just a partial list of the important skills you’ll need to develop:
If you asked me where I was born, I’d answer, in the city of Dearborn, Michigan. However, if you asked me where I grew up, I’d answer, on a Grindley Park basketball court. It was there I learned to be the person that I am.
I endured many trials during pickup games, and the accompanying lessons weren’t always the easiest ones. But I made it, and I benefited greatly from the experience.
For example, what would you do if the basketball nicked off of your fingertips and went out of bounds, but no one else noticed but you?
Plenty of times I’ve stepped up and said, “That ball is off of me—it belongs to the other team.” But did the players on the other team respect me enough to speak up and give my team possession when the ball nicked off of them? I can’t say for sure, but I’d like to think that my honesty made a difference.
Of course, the players on my own team were really annoyed when my honesty once caused us to lose by a single point and we had to sit on the sidelines for close to an hour waiting to play again.
These types of situations come up all the time.
How about when a player purposely hits you with an elbow? When a player on the other team, or your team, cheats on every call or changes the score? When you’re choosing sides, do you pick a better player over a close friend? When someone you barely know isn’t pulling his weight or is taking too many bad shots, do you say something to him about it?
I’m proud to say that in my time as a pickup player I was able to negotiate all of these tough situations and grow from them.
But the pressure that comes with these situations isn’t always easy. Players do fail at finding a place in this social order. I’ve witnessed hundreds of them run out of the park, and run off from the pack.
All of them weren’t literally chased through the gates, though. Rather, they were shamed, ignored, or chastised into leaving. It was either that or accept their assigned roles as bottom-feeders—something they couldn’t do.
What did those players who were run off really lose, if anything? It’s a question that is nearly impossible to answer, because there is no way of measuring what they might have gained through success in street basketball. And what they might have applied that growing skill set to next—maybe the classroom, a career, relationships, or family.
Someone who did benefit from decoding the social order of street basketball is the forty-fourth president of the United States, Barack Obama, who grew up playing pickup games in Hawaii.
In his book Dreams from My Father (1995), President Obama credits his experience as a teenage pickup player with teaching him an “attitude” and “respect” that translated beyond the court.
Back then, the local players called him “Barry O’Bomber” because of the young left-hander’s penchant for shooting long jumpers.
President Obama, who is viewed as one of our greatest public speakers, also learned about trash-talking on the courts. He learned that you could “talk stuff” to the opposition, but that you should “shut the hell up if you couldn’t back it up.”
That was probably a very good lesson for someone who is now commander in chief of the United States Armed Forces.
But even if you don’t grow up to be president, participating in the social order of street ball can have a positive effect on you. Perhaps at this very moment, a future policeman is calling a foul on another pickup player. Or a future teacher is explaining to somebody why his or her move was a traveling violation. Or someone destined to become a judge is negotiating a dispute between two rival players who see the same action on the court differently.
As for myself, I hope to one day become a broadcaster. Basketball has a huge oral tradition, whether it is describing incredible moves, trash-talking, or communicating with other players on the court. I know that the language skills I’ve sharpened through years of playing street ball and participating in its society will serve me well in achieving my broadcasting dream.