{"id":435,"date":"2026-06-25T05:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=435"},"modified":"2026-06-25T05:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:41:10","slug":"this-week-in-nation-history-the-politics-of-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=435","title":{"rendered":"This Week in &#8216;Nation&#8217; History: The Politics of Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<div>\n<article>\n<header>\n<div>\n<ul><li>June 8, 2013<\/li><\/ul><h1>This Week in \u2018Nation\u2019 History: The Politics of Basketball<\/h1><h1>This Week in \u2018Nation\u2019 History: The Politics of Basketball<\/h1><h2>\u201cCollege basketball is, as it was ten years ago, a maggoty mess of moral hypocrisy, out-and-out dishonesty, side-of-the-mouth connivery.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<time>June 8, 2013<\/time>\n<div>\n<p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-434\" height=\"543\" src=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/42be1a2e51e686a7d75af25b07090c1a.jpg\" width=\"615\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/42be1a2e51e686a7d75af25b07090c1a.jpg 615w, https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/42be1a2e51e686a7d75af25b07090c1a-300x265.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px\" \/><\/figure>\n<br\/>\n<em>James Naismith. (Wikimedia Commons)<\/em>\n<p>This season\u2019s NBA playoffs have produced some timely commentary by <em>Nation <\/em>sports correspondent Dave Zirin, whose recent basketball-related dispatches discussed the emergence of Jason Collins as the first openly gay major-sports player and defended the pundit Bill Simmons\u2019s controversial comments about fans of the Memphis Grizzlies still being affected by the trauma of Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s assassination forty-five years ago. Zirin\u2019s thoughtful reporting from the intersection of politics, sports and culture is unique in today\u2019s highly stratified media environment.\n<p>And yet the coverage of basketball in the pages of <em>The Nation<\/em> has a long history. As early as 1935, a writer using the pseudonym Left Wing  \u201cthe growth of that extraordinary sport which for want of a better name is called basketball.\u201d Wing noted that basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith, a physical education instructor at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, sarcastically adding:\n<blockquote><p>Only a retainer of the Y could possibly have invented such a fiendish pastime, a game which in forty short years has been responsible for as many brawls, lost tempers, broken relations, fights, arguments, and discussions as any branch of athletics. Most of us are ashamed of our mistakes and try to hide them, but the inventor\u2026actually boasts of the fact that basketball is played in countries as remote as Latvia, Turkey, Arabia, Madagascar, Uruguay, Bulgaria, and Korea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Wing went on to dismiss the game as \u201ca sort of winter rival to football,\u201d inferior to the older, more popular game because unlike football, \u201cbasketball is played in overheated gymnasiums or field houses, in a dusty, smoke-laden atmosphere conducive to anything except sport.\u201d\n<p>The next major <em>Nation <\/em>article on basketball came in 1960, when the novelist Willard Manus  about the gambling scandals that had plagued the game throughout \u201cthe Fixed Fifties\u2026this flabby decade.\u201d As Manus wrote, bookies and athletes routinely conspired to fix the score of college basketball games in order to reap major gambling profits. \u201cCollege basketball is, as it was ten years ago, a maggoty mess of moral hypocrisy, out-and-out dishonesty, side-of-the-mouth connivery,\u201d Manus wrote. \u201cThe current scandal stands as an almost too-pat symbol of the moral journey to nowhere that college basketball is making.\u201d Manus also paused to criticize professional basketball, whose rising popularity in the 1950s, he claimed, was directly due to fallout from the early \u201950s college basketball fixing scandals and the contemporaneous rise of television. The same sports promoters who had profited illegally from the college scandals had colluded to professionalize their schemes, Manus explained:\n<section>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2>Popular<\/h2>\n<span><span>&#8220;swipe left below to view more authors&#8221;<\/span>Swipe \u2192<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h3>\n<span>We Are in the Middle of a \u201cRolling Coup\u201d<\/span>\n\n                We Are in the Middle of a \u201cRolling Coup\u201d\n            \n<\/h3>\n<p>\nRichard Gephardt<span> and <\/span>Timothy Wirth <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h3>\n<span>The Supreme Court Loves Religious Freedom\u2014Just Not for Rastafarians<\/span>\n\n                The Supreme Court Loves Religious Freedom\u2014Just Not for Rastafarians\n            \n<\/h3>\n<p>\nElie Mystal <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h3>\n<span>Mamdani and the DSA Just Sent a Seismic Message: The Revolution Is Here to Stay<\/span>\n\n                Mamdani and the DSA Just Sent a Seismic Message: The Revolution Is Here to Stay\n            \n<\/h3>\n<p>\nRoss Barkan <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h3>\n<span>Will America Ever Give White-Man Rights to Everyone Else?<\/span>\n\n                Will America Ever Give White-Man Rights to Everyone Else?\n            \n<\/h3>\n<p>\nFeature\n<span>\n                            \/\n                        <\/span>\nElie Mystal <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<blockquote><p>They did it by pandering to the lowest tastes of the new fans of the TV age\u2014armchair addicts who crave high scores, sensational shooting matches, speeded-up action. Out the window went all the old subtleties and niceties of the game: intricate zone defenses, possession paly, clever passing and strategy. The pro game became all offense and no defense. To these eyes, watching it is about as exciting as watching pinball game for two hours.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even if subsequent changes in the rules and culture of the game have rendered obsolete many of Manus\u2019s complaints, one thing remains obvious: basketball, at both the college and professional levels, is undoubtedly \u201cbig business.\u201d\n<p>* * *\n<p>In recent decades <em>Nation <\/em>writers have more directly addressed the politics and socioeconomics of basketball. In a special sports issue in July, 1998, Peter Rothberg\u2014now our associate publisher\u2014 about the issues surrounding the NBA lockout that significantly truncated the 1998\u201399 season. \u201cThe marketing and packaging of the NBA and, yes, the crazy salaries have led to a glittery product long on flash but short on fundamentals and passion,\u201d Rothberg wrote.\n<blockquote><p>Longtime fans have become increasingly alienated by the transformation of their sport into glam entertainment. No one at the top cares, though, as long as the corporate boxes keep selling and ticket prices keep rising\u2026So what if lifelong fans are leaving their seats in droves. There\u2019s still a waiting list for tickets, and the kids priced out of the games can still buy Bulls jackets.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A 2003 Comment piece by sportswriter Murray Polner, \u201cDissent and Basketball,\u201d  of Toni Smith, captain of a Division III basketball team outside New York City, who had stoked national outrage for refusing to salute the American flag before games, citing an abhorrence for economic inequality and the impending war with Iraq. \u201cWe have to wonder whether an obscure 21-year-old would have caused the media storm she did if this country weren\u2019t so divided, anxious and fearful about the threat of war\u2014and if dissent among big-time athletes hadn\u2019t become so exceedingly rare,\u201d Polner said. An article the following year by Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier . In \u201cWhere are the Jocks for Justice?\u201d they attributed the relative dearth of politically involved athletes to an improvement in their collective economic situation, in part thanks to a strong labor movement. \u201cMorality is much bigger than athletics,\u201d the writers concluded. Dave Zirin, a jock for justice if ever there were one, would certainly agree.\n<p>For our second special issue on sports in August 2011, Ari Paul updated readers on the NBA\u2019s labor disputes\u2014the league was then in the midst of yet another lockout. Paul  that although \u201cmany fans dismiss sports labor conflicts as squabbles between billionaires and millionaires,\u201d there were real labor and class issues at stake. The majority of NBA players, Paul made clear, were not earning gargantuan salaries like Kobe Bryant or LeBron James: \u201cYou don\u2019t see most players in commercials, and while they might earn more than the blue-collar worker watching the Finals in a bar, they don\u2019t accumulate ruling-class wealth.\u201d\n<p>Moreover, he noted that players weren\u2019t the only employees who the owners were locking out\u2014that group also included parking lot attendants, bartenders and merchandise retailers\u2014Paul claimed \u201cthe struggle is really not about billionaires versus millionaires but billionaires versus everyone else\u2014including consumers.\u201d Ultimately, the owners\u2019 assault on NBA players was not that different from the attacks on labor that were seen around the country in 2011 and since:\n<blockquote><p>The reality here is that owners are using a recessionary market to justify economic restructuring that would put more money in their pockets, taking it from the highly skilled laborers who make the product so singularly mesmerizing. There is an impulse in the United States to say to skilled workers that they can afford to take some cuts. But that impulse typically stops at CEOs and owners. Maybe this high-profile labor struggle is an opportunity to confront that logical inconsistency.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The NBA labor dispute was eventually settled, but that logical inconsistency, in sports and in society at large, lives large.\n<p>* * *\n<p><em>Subscribers to <\/em>The Nation<em> can access our fully searchable digital archive, which contains thousands of historic articles, essays and reviews, letters to the editor and editorials dating back to July 6, 1865.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=430\">The Supreme Court Loves Religious Freedom\u2014Just Not for Rastafarians<\/a><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=432\">Mamdani and the DSA Just Sent a Seismic Message: The Revolution Is Here to Stay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<footer>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\n                Submit a correction\n            \n<\/li>\n<li>\n\n                Send a letter to the editor\n            \n<\/li>\n<li>\n\n                Reprints &amp; permissions\n            \n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2><i>Support <\/i>The Nation<i>\u2019s June Fundraising Campaign<\/i><\/h2>\n<p>With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn\u2019t \u201cthink about Americans\u2019 financial situation,\u201d millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-\u201cd\u201d populist ideas\u2014not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.<\/p>\n<p><i>The Nation<\/i> elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court\u2019s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.<\/p>\n<p><b>We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we\u2019re raising $20,000 to power <i>The Nation<\/i>\u2019s independent journalism in the run-up to November\u2019s immensely consequential elections.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you\u2019ll donate today.<\/p>\n<p>Onward, <br\/><br\/><span>Katrina vanden Heuvel<br\/>Editor and Publisher, <i><span>The Nation<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p> <\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span> Elie Mystal<svg>\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>Elie Mystal is\u00a0<em>The Nation<\/em>\u2019s justice correspondent and a columnist. He is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. He is the author of two books: the <em>New York Times<\/em> bestseller <em>Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy\u2019s Guide to the Constitution<\/em> and <em>Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America<\/em>, both published by The New Press. You can subscribe to his <em>Nation<\/em> newsletter \u201cElie v. U.S.\u201d here.<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=428\">How Can We Reimagine Higher Education in the Age of Climate Change?<\/a><\/p><br\/>\n<\/div>\n<input\/>\n<input\/>\n<\/footer>\n<\/article>\n\n\n\nAd Policy\n<!-- <a class=\"inifiniteLoader\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/new_infi_loader.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a> -->\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>This Week in &#8216;Nation&#8217; History: The Politics of Basketball - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=435\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in &#8216;Nation&#8217; 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