There has never been a better dive into the absurdities of pickup basketball than this one.
The woman shocked by the unwritten rules of pickup basketball is art
“You’re telling me that in pickup basketball there is a peaceful transfer of power?”
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
None of this is a surprise to anyone who has ever turned up at a local court looking for a game. We just never analyze it, especially with an outsiders perspective. Hell, we can’t even orderly arrange to get bread and milk when there’s a snowstorm on the way without some idiot deciding they need 14 loaves for three days inside, but somehow basketball players are able to intricately navigate team selection and playing rules on the fly.
Don’t get me started on fouls. Everyone’s mileage may vary on this one, but most of the time I’ve played we have the defense call their own fouls. You know what? It works perfectly! It’s rare to have someone not owning up, admitting they did sometime wrong, and moving on. That doesn’t happen anywhere else in society!
I think this is all a lesson that ball isn’t life, because it’s better. If society could model itself a little bit more around how we all act on the court, we’d be so much better off. There’s competition and disagreement, sure — but the unwritten rules of basketball don’t require intense litigation or scrutiny. If you lose, your ass gets off the court. It doesn’t hang around whining and complaining. If you screw up, you own it. If you have a dad bod and the decision is made to play shirts vs. skins you fight to be on the shirts team with a fury you’ve never experienced before.
Okay, maybe that last one just applies to me directly.
See More:
