Race at the Rim

By Adam Doster, June 5, 2007

• Comment Now
• Email
• Print
• Reprints
• Share

Sportswriter Jeffrey Lane's new book explores how race and culture influence basketball and vice versa, and shows that hoops ain't just a game.

---

Even as an avid high school hooper, basketball was never just a game for New York native Jeffrey Lane. "We were in the Public School Athletic League, and we were pretty much the mostly white team in an all-black league," he says. "So it was really interesting to me to see the difference in expectations of black and white teams, the differences in style of play -- whether these were real or just what people imagined -- the difference in style of cheering, uniforms and all that sort of stuff."

With the seeds for inquiry planted, Lane developed a keen eye for the racial, generational and power dynamics at play in his favorite pastime, which is evident in his new book, "Under the Boards: The Cultural Revolution in Basketball." Lane perceptively documents the emergence of a new hoops culture, one greatly influenced by the rapid surge in popularity of hip-hop and the backlash it precipitates among fans, the media and league brass alike. Lane proves that the culture of basketball not only influences American life but accurately reflects wider social patterns and what transpires in the locker room, the press box or the owner's office is worth as much examination as the action on the hardwood.

While Lane focuses his research on six case studies that he says "rocked basketball in the last 30 years," three major trends arise. The first is an analysis of black masculinity, specifically how basketball contributes to the construction of maleness and how that archetype is accepted and manipulated by players and officials from the National Basketball Association (NBA). Through an exhaustive list of examples, Lane demonstrates the development of what he calls "the incestuous relationship between hip-hop, basketball and drug culture."

For young black men, all three options provide dreams of escape from cyclical poverty but at enormous costs given the miniscule rate of success. They also require black men to "hustle," or to create an untrusting, self-interested, hypermacho persona inflected a self-aggrandizing braggadocio. Lane purports that the player most associated with this trend is tattooed and braid-sporting black point guard Allen Iverson, the Denver Nuggets player who entered the NBA in 1996 and "accelerated the [league's] hip-hop makeover." Lane makes sense of Iverson's personality and influence through the lens of hip-hop culture's "keeping it real" ideology -- an approach to life influenced by popular notions of black authenticity that sees candidness, individuality and toughness as essential to success in a white world.

The second trend is white backlash to the changing nature of the game and the larger economic and social world, anchored by Lane's analysis of Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird and Texas Tech University head coach Bobby Knight, arguably the two most important white hoops figures of the last generation. For Lane, both stars symbolize a culturally important "vanishing icon." As Boston natives reeled from the deindustrialization and racial strife that engulfed the city in the 1970s, Bird grew to represent the Horatio Alger blue-collar worker; The Hick from French Lick was a player who drank beer, worked hard and outshined his mostly black opponents to the delight of white fans across the city and nation.

The volatile but incredibly successful Knight was seen as the Heartland's tough-love father figure, a coach whose deliberate and regimented style of play allowed Indiana University to rack up wins with less athletic white players. For economically vulnerable white fans disconnected from black culture, Lane argues that these men played a key role in easing white anxiety because they "brought it back home, reclaiming occupancy and preeminence in an area whites had originated and once dominated."

Lane also studies how the NBA tries to strike a profitable equilibrium between its players' image and the white normative culture in which it is situated. On one hand, Commissioner David Stern and other league officials understand that the rebel image of black masculinity created in part by basketball sells. But they also are wary of ostracizing lily-white corporate boardrooms and the league's largely white fan base. Thus, the NBA sells hip-hop and black machismo as an "embraced but contained culture." As Lane explains, this tactic manifests itself through the league's marketing techniques or its recently implemented dress code.

"Under the Boards" is most instructive for its refusal to ignore how race and basketball intersect. In a league where almost 80 percent of players are black but only one franchise, the Charlotte Bobcats, can claim a black majority owner (BET mogul Robert Johnson), the NBA is noticeably silent on racial division. When tensions arise, such as the recent study claiming racial bias among game officials, Stern generally spouts a glib response to limit the league's liability as opposed to combating the deeper issues.

Lane, with no such image to protect, raises important concerns about racially coded marketing, punitive double standards and issues of power. He also complicates the black-white binary by exploring the outsourcing of foreign talent and the exploitative American youth development system that in part leads scouts to look for players overseas.

Additionally, Lane effectively dissects how unsophisticated sports media reports frame public opinion. The vast majority of reporters, trained using an outdated system that values on-field activity above all else, often contribute to the racialization of athletes instead of examining the process itself. Whether it's pointing out the inability of commentators to compare players outside their race or the conceptualization of Iverson as a thug while the notoriously unsportsmanlike white Utah Jazz guard John Stockton is pegged as wholesome, Lane deconstructs this simplistic and lazy form of commentary.

Unfortunately, Lane overemphasizes race at the expense of a more inclusive analysis of gender and/or sexuality. While Lane says he felt that he "didn't have the experience or expertise" to speak on topics central to women's hoops, the omissions are surprising, given the growth of women's basketball and recent discussions about homosexuality sparked by former players John Amaechi (who came out publically after retiring from the NBA) and Tim Hardaway (who expressed disgust for gays following Amaechi's announcement).

Despite the book's limitations in scope, Lane proves that recreation doesn't have to be disengaging. Basketball can actually provide an enjoyable and accessible opportunity for people, especially young folks, to talk about challenging topics like race and privilege. "Everyone plays basketball," he says. "And it can be a neat space to talk about race and to have certain discussions. In some ways, it can be a tool for social awareness."

For more on this topic and others, check the work of conscious sports writers like Scoop Jackson, Dave Zirin and the bloggers at The Starting Five.

Adam Doster is a recent graduate of University of Michigan, former managing editor of the Michigan Independent and current freelance reporter based in Chicago.