Essay concepts and applications

Basketball, more than any sport played on a major scale in America, characterizes the plight of Blacks in their struggle to acquire equality as a race. Basketball has proven to be an area of society where Blacks have not only obtained equality but have managed to demonstrate a remarkable superiority. On the confines of a small competitive surface, Blacks have exhibited their talent, their creativity, and their physical energy.

In his essay, The Black and White Truth about Basketball, author Jeff Greenfield examines this phenomenon. Greenfield does so by basing many of comments on racial stereotypes but, nevertheless, his comments touch home on many levels. Written in 1975, many years before Blacks began to dominate the sport like they have today, Greenfield was prophetic in his comments and, thereby, demonstrating that the stereotypes that he utilized in making his points may not be stereotypes at all but definable facts.

Greenfield argues in the space of just a few short pages how Blacks, as a group, are more creative, more agile, and more determined than the whites that play the same game. In an article that is now dated, because it utilizes players that have long retired and moved on, Greenfield has demonstrated in a socially acceptable and sensitive manner the views that many people, Black and white, have felt for a long time.

Basketball, as a sport, parallels the life of Blacks in America. Developed as an urban sport, basketball has developed as Blacks have emerged from the confines of urban slums and begun to participate in the full American experience. Basketball was designed to be played on a small space and it required a minimum resources. A ball and a hoop, with or without a net, were all that was required. Contrast that with baseball and its need for wide open spaces; football with its fancy and expensive equipment; and hockey with its need for ice and a specialized building and it is easy to understand how basketball became the sport of choice for so many young Blacks and why they have come to dominate the sport (Riess).

Sports have long been a way of a race or ethnic group to establish itself in America society. The Irish and Jewish people utilized boxing as a way of integrating themselves into the mainframe of American society when they first started immigrating to the United States and the Italians did the same in baseball. For Blacks, the sport of basketball represented their gateway to acceptance and the conditions under which basketball was played offered the perfect vehicle. Urban Blacks, for the most part, did not have access to the facilities, coaches, and equipment required to play other sports. The confined space and limited cost of participating blended well into the framework of the Black lifestyle: highly congested, concrete filled city neighborhoods.

The critics of Greenfield's article point out that he relied heavily upon the stereotypes of Blacks and whites who played the game of basketball. A criticism that may hold some merit, however, the passage of time has strengthened rather than weakened the arguments advanced by Greenfield in his article. Since 1975 when Greenfield's article was published in Esquire magazine, the percentage of Blacks playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA) has increased and their dominance as the stars in the game has increased as well (Leonard).

Greenfield argued in his article that the game of basketball has become ingrained in the culture of Black America. For Blacks in the major cities of America, achievement on the basketball court represents success in life. For inner city Blacks, becoming a doctor, lawyer, or successful businessman is not seen as a realistic goal but achieving some measure of success on the basketball court, even if it is only on the local playground, is realistic. Therefore, they pour their heart and soul into playing the game. As stated by William Ellerbee, a high school coach from national powerhouse, Simon Gratz High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, "Suburban kids tend to play for the fun of it & #8230; but inner city kids look at basketball as a matter of life and death (Price)."

One of the other arguments made by Greenfield is the remarkable difference in the style of game played by Blacks and Whites. From Greenfield's perspective, the white players play the game in a methodical, thoughtful manner while the Black players rely upon their superior athletic talents such as speed, agility, and strength. These superior athletic skills afford the Black basketball player the opportunity to play the game in a free easy manner that white players can only dream of.

The cultural argument that Greenfield offers is analogized to the earlier success of Blacks in jazz and blues music in the years following the Second World War. For Blacks in those years, music offered them the same opportunity that basketball now offers today's generation. Black musicians gradually transformed the jazz and blues genre and began to dominate a sector of the music industry that had been formerly dominated by whites. Correspondingly, Black athletes took a sport that was designed and intended for whites and transformed it into a game that they now dominate. Instead of the game played by whites with beach baskets for nets it has become a game played on poorly maintained inner city playgrounds with rusting rims (George). In the process basketball has become to be a reflection of the Black ghetto culture like jazz and blues music was to the last generation of Black Americans. Blacks have re-invented the game and, in the process, basketball has become a ritual of expression for them.

It is easy to take issue with the comments made by Greenfield because he makes statements that make many whites uncomfortable. Whites do not want to address the possibility that what Greenfield argues is correct. Whites want to avoid facing the reality that the NBA is dominated by Blacks. They refuse to admit that the college basketball game is dominated by Blacks and they refuse to acknowledge that the best players in the game are Black. It has been over thirty-five years since Greenfield wrote his article and in these thirty-five years his arguments have actually been strengthened. In 1975, Greenfield's arguments may have some measure of speculation to them and may have suffered from some sense of generalization. Today, that is no longer the case. The game of basketball has been transformed from the slow, methodical game that it once was into the more graceful, speed-oriented, physical, more athletic game that characterized the game once only played on inner city playgrounds. Greenfield's prophesies and observations have come to fruition.