By Jason Reagan and Jane
Nicholson
When Tom McLaughlin says basketball imitates
life, he’s got game — the experience and
the pages to back it up.
Appalachian State University
professor Tom McLaughlin finds the roots of a “rough
democracy” and ethics by studying pick-up basketball
games like the regular lunch-hour game at ASU played
by the “Old Guys.”
Photo by
Marie Freeman |
The Appalachian State English professor has
transformed his lifelong fascination with “pick-up”
or informal basketball play into a cultural study that may
help readers find a modern ethical framework in a practice
known more for copious amounts of sweat, achy joints and
fanny slaps.
McLaughlin delves into the ideas of community and camaraderie
in his latest book, “Give and Go: Basketball as a Cultural
Practice” (State University of New York Press).
McLaughlin played for more than 20 years in what he calls
the “old-guy game,” a regular gathering of faculty
and staff who meet at lunch to play pickup ball at ASU.
However, since the age of 10 growing up in basketball-crazed
Philadelphia, he began to notice cultural issues that expand
outside the court developing within the game.
In McLaughlin’s newest and third book, the weekly pick-up
game is seen as a metaphor for how we relate to other people
in everyday life situations. Although the saying “Sports
build character” is an overused cliché in his
mind, McLaughlin began to see certain trends emerge from
informal games which may at least reveal and sometimes develop
certain character traits.
Written for academic and general audiences, the book combines
of a reflection of his own experiences with research on
topics such as community building, ethical theory and decision-making.
“We make judgments about other players,” he said.
Players often gauge a fellow players personality and ethical
principles by how they play, he added, remembering an anecdote
about Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.
The story goes that Obama’s wife, Michelle, asked her
relatives to play a pick-up basketball game with her then-boyfriend
to find out how he behaved. Based on his on-the-court demeanor,
the relatives gave Obama a thumbs-up and the rest is matrimonial
and political history.
“I started thinking about the ethics of the game,”
McLaughlin said. “I’ve always been struck by how
much of the talk on the court about how to make decisions
about fouls and about who decides when a ball goes out of
bounds.”
That’s where McLaughlin got the idea for his book.
The 250-page volume examines how the informal aspect of
the game developed and some of the themes involved — especially
three major ones.
“Localness is one,” McLaughlin said. “The
game is different everywhere,” he added with different
cultural assumptions underlying the rules. But no matter
if the game is played on the streets of Harlem or in the
driveway of a suburban home, the overall effect is one of
community building. Often, a group of players develop lifelong
friendships and unique, but unspoken, cultural rituals,
all from the simple act of picking up a ball and finding
two hoops.
Players have to build the parameters of the community from
a foundation of trust: When and how often do they play?
What are the rules regarding aggressive play? How do players
deal with unruly offenders? In short, a local basketball
court can be seen as a laboratory for what McLaughlin calls
a kind of “rough democracy.”
And it’s this kind of “make-it-up-as-you-go”
community building that forms McLaughlin’s second and
third themes: improvisation and negotiation.
“One of the big themes of the book is the idea of negotiation,”
said McLaughlin, who loves the free-form nature of the game.
“Because there are no coaches, referees, league commissioners
or general managers, the players have to negotiate what
the game is going to be like.”
The book also addresses basketball and the media. McLaughlin
believes televised basketball oversimplifies the game and
that camera placement, editing and narration make every
game look the same.
He says basketball movies tend to focus on players’
obedience to the coach.
“That’s why I always preferred pick up ball,”
McLaughlin said. “Pickup basketball is improvised like
jazz, like rap. It’s made up in the moment and to me,
that’s one of the big excitements of basketball, being
totally in the moment and creating it on the fly.”
McLaughlin’s book expands on the main theme of his
research at ASU, cultural studies — he also specializes
in literary criticism and theory. He received his undergraduate
degree at La Salle College in 1970 and completed his doctoral
degree at Temple University in 1976.
McLaughlin said he hopes his research helps people to question
every aspect of their own culture from the basketball court
to the Supreme Court and every practice in between. He believes,
by analyzing the culture of every day life, people will
begin to think more critically about how and why society
functions in the hopes of finding better game plans in the
full-court, give-and-go of human civilization.
The “old guys” still play but McLaughlin has stopped
the game except in a few family games due to foot pain.
He still finds a similar sense of movement and community
by practicing tai chi with an on-campus group.
Meanwhile, McLaughlin’s book is getting a full-court
press of media attention in the literary world.
“McLaughlin still plays in half-court games, but his
theories on basketball are full court, and then some,”
wrote Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times. “If Sartre
and Camus were hoopsters, they’d be laying high fives
on him.”
David L. Andrews, author of “Michael Jordan Inc.: Corporate
Sport, Media Culture,” writes “McLaughlin vividly
illuminates the classed, raced, and gendered aspects of
basketball, as well as its relationship with broader societal
forces (social, economic, political, ethical, and technological).
This is an important book on a sport that has come to define
the contemporary American condition.”
If the game of publishing is anything like a pick-up game,
it looks like McLaughlin might be on his way to that Nirvana
all players dream about — a place called “in
the Zone.”
“Give and Go: Basketball as a Cultural Practice”
is available at the ASU Bookstore and can be ordered at
amazon.com.
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