Ball Don't Lie!: Myth, Genealogy, and Invention in the Cultures of Basketball

Sporting

by Yago Colás

Pro basketball player Rasheed Wallace often exclaimed the pragmatic truth “Ball don’t lie!” during a game. It is a protest against a referee’s bad calls. But the slogan, which originated in pickup games, brings the reality of a racialized urban playground into mainstream American popular culture. 

In Ball Don’t Lie!, Yago Colás traces the various forms of power at work in the intersections between basketball and language from the game’s invention to the present day. He critiques existing popular myths concerning the history of basketball, contextualizes them, and presents an alternative history of the sport inspired by innovations. Colás emphasizes the creative prerogative of players and the ways in which their innovations shape—and are shaped by—broader cultural and social phenomena.

Ball Don't Lie! shows that basketball cannot be reduced to a single, fixed or timeless essence but instead is a continually evolving exhibition of physical culture that flexibly adapts to and sparks changes in American society.

Genres: Sports, Basketball

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2016

Reviews

[nini · Rating 3 out of 5]

it got me in its thoughts even at points of like inception nothing else to say ig 🕰️

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this, particularly the last chapter on LeBron and capitalism.

[Christian Meier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colás makes some great points, but too often he's caught up in creating logic chains with very vapid single links. Once he's on a roll he's blasting out theories that he just nods off as proven because they fit the point he's making, and that's not how you do academic work on the level he obviously intends to do.

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking use of critical theory to deconstruct various "myths" in basketball history. Will be very useful for putting together a basketball course, even if the theory was sometimes a bit much for me. Good book for un-learning some lazy narratives about basketball.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea the book was going to be so insightful in its social commentary. This is a masterwork that combines a subject of interest and amusement with specified critical analysis of the culture of basketball.

[Maud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere between Barthes, Hanif Abdurraquib, and CLR James. Never would I have thought I’d hear Manu Ginobili’s style of playing as “lumpenproletariat.” I like basketball! Kill the white supremacist in your head.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trying to explain the social significance of the phrase "ball don't lie" in quasi-academic jargon creates quite a bit of a disconnect. Not sure who the intended audience is here, but it's not for basketball fans who like to read about basketball. Maybe there's a niche audience of masochists who enjoy trudging through torturously verbose writing about why white people want black people to act white, specifically in regard to the NBA, and why any of that matters to anyone. But probably not.

I'm not proud of the way I've boiled this book down so simply, but it's accurate. 'Sheed, let me know if you disagree.

[Austin Braun]

While I was reading the book “Ball Don't lie” I was very inspired by sticky and how he finally could act like a normal human and how good he got at basketball. I liked how much basketball was in it the only part I didn't like was how they made him seem like a criminal. I really liked the style of the author how you could really feel how sticky felt. I would recommend this book to anyone who like basketball or is going through a tough time. It was awesome when sticky got pulled up and ended up winning the game for his team but he kept making bad decisions throughout the book.

[Katherine Lavelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the UWL library, and I really enjoyed it. I am not this critical of a scholar, so I enjoyed reading a book about the NBA from this perspective. The book is well written and interesting. I especially liked the chapter on the LBJ reaction that is pretty spot on with some of the public criticisms that were out there. Plus, it's short - and don't we all love a good academic beach read? :)

[dusty.rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope to get to a more in-depth review in the future, but of course I give this book five stars: It is a book about basketball which usefully references Jorge Luis Borges more than once.

[Jung · Rating 5 out of 5]

An in-depth and nuanced analysis at the intersection of sports fandom & social justice that refuses to let the racism, classism, and other problematic aspects of basketball be whitewashed into history.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, incredibly thorough deconstruction of the cultures of basketball into their component myths. I definitely have a family bias, but this is a great book.

[Adam J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe the most thoughtful and intellectually challenging basketball history book I've ever read. I'm rethinking everything I "knew" about pro hoops. Highly recommended.

[Chris Orrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the most unique basketball (if not sports) book I've ever read.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colas uses the “Ball don’t lie” taunt of Rasheed Wallace towards officials, with its origins in Black American pickup basketball, to analyze what he terms as the 9 major foundational and discursive myths of basketball. He begins with this taunt in arguing that the NBA depends on urban pickup basketball for development, but seeks to strictly control it through referee policing of players, with much latitude in what constitutes a foul. The two chapters of part one looks to foundational myths of the NBA, shifting the games roots onto foundational and administrative figures. Chapter one, explores the Naismith foundational myth, which Colas argues obscures that his original set of rules is drastically different than today’s game, since it was totally passing oriented, while a player is one who invented the dribble on a makeshift play, which builds upon the rule of law as opposed to player improvision shaping the game’s evolution. Chapter two looks to the NBA founding myth, which usually backdates to the founding the BAA, a more open league than the BLA, but in order to place basketball as reaching “maturity” of being properly organized under capitalist supervision as far back as possible.
Part two moves to the mythology of modern basketball over the course of the NBA’s development, beginning with a chapter on the supposed rivalry between Wilt Chamberlain and Russell, with Chamberlain having the statistics and showmanship, while Russell did things the right way (the “white way”) and therefore gets the championships. The reality is that they two were friends and merely competed and Chamberlain won plenty of big games, while Russell was very outspoken in Civil Rights struggles, especially in Boston. Chapter four moves to the myth of the perfect team of the 1970s New York Knicks, with racial harmony, even though the Knicks dynasty was shorter lived and exaggerated how much harmony actually occurred. Chapter five moves to the myth of Magic Johnson versus Larry Bird, when Bird supposably saved the NBA from being too black as people were drifting to the college game out of disgust at perceived black antics.
Part three then touches on the NBA as a global league from the early 1990s on, with multinational reach and involvement. Chapter six touches on the intersections of Michael Jordan as the best of all time, mirroring Fukuyama’s End of History narrative, in that Jordan now transcended race in his greatness. Chapter seven moves to Allen Iverson and the need of the NBA to regulate hiphop, which it profited off but needed to keep it from becoming too “street” as Iverson unapologetically embodied. Chapter eight looks at the myth of doing it the right way, as Larry Brown epitomized with the Detroit Piston’s victory over the dynastic Los Angeles Lakers, obscuring the stardom of its own players. Finally, Colas closes by analyzing Lebron James’s press conference from Cleveland to Miami, with the backlash against the audacity of a black man claiming maximum value and freedom of movement for himself. Eventually, it was a morality tale, as James returns to Cleveland to deliver a ring after he matured in Miami.

Key Themes and Concepts
-“White basketball consciousness” holds onto white control over black athletes, chastising them as needing to know their place with small ball, not pursing maximum money, and not dunking.

[Matthew Salesses · Rating 4 out of 5]

First chapter is the best but the whole thing is interesting.