Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
May 8, 2008 issue
ASU Professor Writes Cultural Study of Pickup Basketball
Tom McLaughlin is passionate about basketball.
But his passion runs deeper than an appreciation of a full-court press or the ability to sink a 23-foot jump shot.
McLaughlin is passionate about the camaraderie and community that develop within backyard and recreational pickup games and about how the game addresses social, economic and ethical issues.
He details these perspectives in his latest book Give and Go: Basketball as a cultural practice published by the State University of New York Press.
McLaughlin, a professor of English at Appalachian State University, played for more than 20 years in what he calls the “oldguygame,” a regular gathering of faculty and staff who meet at lunch to play pickup ball at Appalachian.
That’s where McLaughlin got the idea for his book.
Written for academic and general audiences, the book combines reflection of his own experiences with research on topics such as community building, ethical theory and decision making.
“I started thinking about the ethics of the game,” he said. “I’ve always been struck by how much of the talk on the court is about how to make decisions about fouls and about who decides when a ball goes out of bounds.
“One of the big themes of the book is the idea of negotiation,” said McLaughlin, who loves the freeform 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.” Because of that, McLaughlin describes pickup basketball as a rough democracy. “The players themselves are in charge; there is no hierarchy,” he said.
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 pickup 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.”