How Basketball Can Save the World: 13 Guiding Principles for Reimagining What's Possible

by David Hollander

A thought-provoking exploration of how basketball--and the values rooted in the game--can solve today's most pressing issues, from the professor behind the popular New York University course

When New York University professor David Hollander introduced a course called "How Basketball Can Save the World," it became a sensation almost overnight. For the class, Hollander invites current NBA and WNBA superstars, Hall of Fame players, coaches, and other cultural figures to debate and give insights on how the underlying principles of the game of basketball can provide a new blueprint for addressing our diverse challenges and showing what's possible beyond the court.

Now, in How Basketball Can Save the World, Hollander moves beyond the classroom to present a beautiful new philosophy based on values inherent to basketball, such as inclusion and the balancing of individual success with the needs of the collective. These principles move us beyond conflict and confusion toward a more harmonious and meaningful future:

- Positionless-ness: In basketball, players aren't siloed into just one position or responsibility. In life, we can learn to be more adaptive to the challenges we face by embracing a positionless mindset.
- Human Alchemy: We talk a lot about team chemistry, but team alchemy means the creation of something totally new--a team far greater than the sum of its parts.
- Sanctuary: Basketball offers players a critical space to feel safe, free, and expressive. Fostering similar spaces in the real world can encourage people to be their best, happiest, and most productive selves.
- Transcendence: Basketball is about defying gravity, becoming weightless, and flying higher than anyone ever has before. By seeking out this principle, we can elevate ourselves and those around us to a new plane of experience.

Whether you're a seasoned veteran of the game or have never set foot on a court, How Basketball Can Save the World will empower you to become more resilient, tolerant, and wise in your relationship with yourself, others, and the world around you.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Basketball

320 pages, Hardcover

Published February 7, 2023

Reviews

[Kevin Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

First thought after finishing this "Man, what a fun book."

The day after getting laid (off), I took a stroll to the TJs by the river, picked up some dried mango, and found this at McNally&Jackson. Thought it could be a good antidote for what ails me and it was!

Hollander covers everything from neuroscience to racism to sexism to the loneliness/opioid epidemic to open democracy to alternative models of banking. Basketball, of course, the solution to all of these. He oversells it and the connections are tenuous, but it's a creative lens combining a lot of things that interest me.

I found it fun, romantic, inspiring, invigorating, and simply interesting. Full of so many gorgeous quotes about this game I love and how it can help this world I love. It evoked a lot of memories. Shooting 100 free throws in sixth grade on Tuesday nights with my dad. David and Goliath battles against my oldest brother Pat. Lil pick and roll chemistry with Jack Mirabito. Base high sets with Coach McMahon. Dribbling in the garage during 15 min contact tracing breaks. Shooting around whenever there's a lot on the mind.

~~~

Two particular passages rejuvenated me.

Ubuntu (pg. 19 -21), the African philosophy that guided the 2008 Celts to banner 17, translated as "I am because we are". Obama described Ubuntu as Mandela's "greatest gift... his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity." The common humanity of man!! This is the principle that has long been the North Star in my life, that prompted my supply chain obsession. It is not solely spiritual; it is material. We are connected to every and all through materiality. The pages of this book were once light, made to tree, cut to log, formed to paper. This is because we are.

~~~

Transcendance (pg. 259-261). Hollander writes that "Basketball is about air... We must fly. Or, we must dare to dream to fly. That dream is a basketball dream." Pope Francis on Basketball "Yours is a sport that lifts you up to the heavens, because, as a former player once said, it is a sport that looks upwards, towards the basket, and so it is a real challenge for all those who are used to living with their eyes always on the ground." I fell in love with basketball because of my roots and it continues through my branches. My whole childhood I was obsessed with Irishness. In second grade, I tried to do a project on Brian Boru. In fourth grade, I did a project on the Irish language. In fifth grade, all I wanted for Christmas was an Irish cap like my grandfathers had. When I found out that there was a professional sports team called the Celtics, with an Irish leprechaun as a logo, it sparked the obsession of a lifetime.

I wasn't naturally drawn to sports. I was a fat kid. I sucked at little league. I didn't stand a chance in soccer. Could hardly throw a football. But the existence of a basketball team named after my roots, sprouted a love. I fell in love with the Celts. I fell in love with basketball. I played every day at recess in fourth grade. I tried out for the travel team in fifth grade. I got cut. Tried again next year, made it.

Like all loves, it ebbed and flowed. The game hurt me and I hurt the game. It always remained the solace.

Last year at New Years, after the tumultuous trifecta of a breakup, a job loss, and a move, I decided I needed a goal. Not a grandiose one like years past, but a simple one: Dunk. In Hollander's words, air. During the malaise of living and working at home, I'd put on 30 pounds. I used to be able to throw down, but now I was a ground bound mound of rebound. Equipped with a goal, I had my branches. Ulysses, to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Armed with a godsend of a gym, we strived, we sought, we found, and we did not yield. And, man does a two hand slam feel fucking good.

Basketball is about air... We must fly. Or, we must dare to dream to fly.



~~~

The 13 Principles are:
- Cooperation
- Balance of Individual and Collective
- Balance of Force and Skill
- Positionlessness
- Human Alchemy
- Make it Global
- Gender Inclusive
- No Barrier to Access
- For the Outsider, the Other, and the Masses
- Urban and Rural
- Antidote to Isolation and Loneliness
- Sanctuary
- Transcendence

[HAMPS · Rating 5 out of 5]

BOOK 8/50 OF 2025

OKAY I KNOW I HAND OUT FIVE STARS LIKE CANDY BUT! THIS BOOK WAS INSANE

I read it kinda broken up so it felt like the lecture/class at NYU it’s based on and I think that helped me digest better. This book changed my perspective, and opened my eyes, on so many things. I highly recommend this book to anyone, even if they don’t fw basketball like a Celtics fan in Boston does!

The first couple principles (yes the book is broken into principles which is PURE GENIUS) are very terminology heavy and a lot to digest on stats and the actual game and development of rules, BUT if you can push through that it gets more idea & real world heavy towards the second half of principles.

Overall, I loved. Many pieces of this will stick with me and I’ll think about everytime I watch a game (or see a court of pickup iykyk)

[Sarah Boselovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly disappointed by this one. I thought I would’ve liked it more. It was good at times and I did learn some interesting facts, but at the end of the day, I already knew how amazing the sport of basketball is. I didn’t need the book to remind me.

[Eliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept, but definitely seemed like it was written for folks who aren't super familiar with basketball and those who aren't super familiar with social issues. When it provided context and potential solutions for isolation, racism, and class struggles, they were well appreciated, but it did get somewhat repetitive and bogged down with re-iterated introductions of people previously referenced in the book.

Instead of highlighting the absolute stars and what they've done, I was interested in how team dynamics and the evolution of how the game is played can be tied to social ills throughout the sport's tenure. It touched on it a little in the first few chapters but was much more tenuous as the book went on.

[Dave Hambleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOW BASKETBALL CAN SAVE THE WORLD by David Hollander rejuvenated my love for the game and even made me love it on a whole new level! He uses James Naismith’s 13 original rules of basketball to explain how we can build a better world. Basketball truly is both a microcosm of and a blueprint for society. And the book offers so many side quests! I plan on reading and watching so many of the works referenced in the pages of Hollander’s opus. I’ve already hunted down an article on Steve Nash (The Karl Marx of the Hardwood by Chuck Klosterman), ordered copies of BASKETBALL: ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT by James Naismith and RANGE: WHY GENERALISTS TRIUMPH IN A SPECIALIZED WORLD by David Epstein, and found the BASKETBALL: A LOVE STORY docuseries.

🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀/🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

[Bablu]

gotta give respect to get respect tripe repeated ad nauseam but not a bad way to fill a few hours. not worth picking up if i hadn't learned about basketball: a love story, 3 seconds the russian bball film, kos magazine the serbian basketball pub, and a couple of near-contemporary things that escaped notice like a fatwa on women hooping in somalia and that jonestown had a basketball team whose members mainly didn't drink the koolaid. i bet there's more to the story than what hollander chose to include

[Austin Gibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you have to read things made just for you. Enjoyed reading the manifestation of David Hollander’s popular class at NYU turned novel. Some guiding principles for life and society through the metaphor and game of basketball. My personal favs: Rural and Urban, Positionless-ness, Make it Global, Gender Inclusive, and Sanctuary. Also a great homage to the vision of James Naismith, who could only dream basketball would become the second most-played game across the globe.

[Daniel Kurth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Als Basketball-Nerd war das Buch natürlich sehr spannend - aber auch abseits des Sports ein paar sehr wichtige Messages, die mir im Kopf geblieben sind. Unsere Gesellschaft profitiert extrem von Prinzipien, die uns der Sport gibt. Einfach ein schönes Buch, das Hoffnung macht :)

[nini · Rating 5 out of 5]

i need the new season NOW this was the time of my life enjoyed it sm except for the green commentary his name makes me gag ; abuse response or whatever lol <3 other than that perfect it really is can be / is our everyday 🏀

[Cryer Sto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will go down as one of my favorite books of all-time, and I’ll probably never stop talking about it as long as I live.

I love basketball

[laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this book. Narration was good, easy to understand, pleasant, engaging voice.
Hmmmm...
I'm NOT a sports person. This title popped up somewhere & it was completely different than anything I've ever read. Our son & grandson LOVE this game. I've spent fair amount of time with young men from the inner city who seem to come alive when playing & often view it as a ticket into a better life, title intrigued me, why not?
It was worthwhile, enjoyable and thought provoking. Some chapters/principles were, in my opinion, too long, too preachy. Some interesting points that I'd never considered re: diff coaching/playing styles having ability to seriously promote critical thinking, diversity of skill, increase self esteem while also teaching humility. Author also pointed out ways in which basketball is so much more accessible, therefore more inherently inclusive than many other sports, the great unifier...I was surprised to learn how important basketball is in China (I've heard controversy re: NBA profits vs human rights abuses, didn't realize what a big deal game is there). Also learned about how immigrants to the US, used the game to gain social connectivity in their new world. Worth the time, a great gift for the basketball lover in your life.

[Chase K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been one to argue that basketball has been the catalyst for learning many of life’s most valuable lessons. Through the sport, I have learned about grit, adversity, routine, hard work, acceptance, teamwork, competition, fierceness, and most of all, family. I am the woman I am today because of the sport. It is a grand unifier in my life, and arguably, the world! This book highlights 13 of basketball’s more abstract, applicable lessons through analyzing our society and culture. It highlights basketball as a sanctuary, something I wholeheartedly agree with, and pushes for the sport to become a means to solving many of our societal issues. Whether or not you know how to shoot a layup, or even what a layup is, this book can shed a bright light on a handful of current events/issues while motioning towards the role we have in being advocates for a better world.

[Scott Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) Solid thought book looking at 13 principles tied to basketball and how those principles can tie into concepts for society writ large. Sometimes sports can take on the role of outsized metaphor for life, and this work is no exception. Still, there are moments where the concepts involved with the game can take on greater significance outside the game on the court. The international flavor, especially how basketball resonated in China is particular insightful. Some may get turned off by the liberal views of the author, but the author does back up his assertions with evidence. I enjoy hoops (playing and watching), but do I think it can be the panacea to solve the world's ills? Not entirely. Take the good, but keep it in perspective.

[Adam Sarlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hollander compares the 21st century and its growing technological advances and lack of privacy and expression to the Gilded Age, where corporations and wealthy peoples and owners dominated society, leaving the middle and lower class marginalized, to explain to how we need basketball and its principles to save our world. Through cooperation, social interaction, belief that we can accomplish our dreams that stand beyond our grasp, and inclusivity, basketball can give us a safe space where we have freedom and can be ourselves while learning to interact with others, creating a more community centered world, elevating the social status of our world and the desire to become better people, which was James Naismith’s ultimate goal when he invented this special game.

[Carlo Battisti · Rating 5 out of 5]

How basketball can save the world - A fascinating book, which builds on the history of basketball - let's remember this name, James Naismith, he wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program - the theory that the rules of basketball when applied can really save the world. Inspired by Naismith's Original 13 Rules - https://www.usab.com/dr-james-naismit... (Jan. 15, 1892, in the Springfield College school newspaper, The Triangle) - which turns into 13 existential principles for improving our global society. Fantastic.

[Clint Hannah-Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually quite liked this book a lot. I love basketball, always have, but the ability to take the importance of the game and view societal and global ills and concerns through the lens of the sport is something I never would've expected. I think some aspects of this book will stick with me for quite a while, but like most books and discussions that deal with a lot of global issues, I think some arguments came off a lot stronger than others. Some felt a little overly simplistic, which is a consistent problem I find with books of this type. Still--I liked it more than I like most similarly situated books I've read previously. Worth a read.

[Brendan Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book and concept. I love the thesis: essentially that basketball can create world peace. That it brings people together and breaks down barriers. Hollander tackles big topics like poverty, loneliness, and abuse and offers basketball’s teachings as a way forward.

A minor critique: The section on Jeremy Lin was awesome. I followed Linsanity in real time. Yet it seemed like an omission that Hollander did not mention that Lin is an NBA champion. Yes, he was a bench player, but he has a ring, and that is noteworthy.

Overall, a nice read advisable for those who love basketball and sociology.

[Autumn Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful prose for lovers of the game — David Hollander’s ‘How Basketball Can Save The World’ — oftentimes stooped me in my tracks when reading, striking compelling, eloquent chords, and making a strong case for the beacon of hope the game of basketball represents for humanity.

I would highly recommend the book to anyone who feels connected to the game or who is intrigued by the idea of reshaping policy, social standards, etc. based on the simple but highly influential game that is basketball.

Ordered my own copy as soon as I finished the book, I think this is one to my favourite reads so far this year.

[Kayla Arnot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely Relevant

As someone who has loved basketball their entire life, this book brought me so much joy. Especially learning about the deeper origins of the sport, and how it has so many unique qualities not present in other sports. These unique qualities is what the author really leans into to help highlight how they could drive positive change in our world. Especially living in such a time of uncertainty, I highly recommend this book. To the basketball junkie and the person who doesn’t know a thing about the sport. I think all will enjoy this read.

[Michael Pressman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I celebrated World Basketball Day on December 21 st by shooting some hoops. Hollanders book tells many stories of basketball from its inception to woman in Somalia sneaking away to play. It shows us how all you need is a ball and a hoop to bring people together I am a 72 year old man who still enjoys playing. Hollander also teaches a course at NYU. A good book who have experienced and for the young who want to know the history of world basketball

[Kareem Kalil · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a while I have had a tough time explaining my basketball obsession with others in a way that makes sense. Hollander makes me feel so affirmed as a lover of the game--explaining how it is something that transcends sport and gives you a true sense of meaning. Grateful to his work and one of my favorite reads in a long time.

[Ryan Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a basketball fan I was drawn to the title and idea of this book. But man, this was so thought provoking, real, and just a joy to read and process. Basketball really can change the world. I related to so many ideas and feelings in this book it was like my soul had put thoughts and ideas into the pages and could describe exactly how basketball has always made me feel and filter my life.

[Jen Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a basketball fan and believer in the power of sports, I really enjoyed this book. It was pretty idealistic but if you've ever been part of a truly incredible and selfless team, you'll find lots of parallels and life lessons.

[Jenna Walls · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - First book of 2024! This book was a good mix of interesting basketball history and important thoughts for the future. I’m not sure that it’s a book I would have easily finished if I’d be reading it in print form; the audiobook version was easier to digest.

[Sofia Abate · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book fucking rocked. everything I learn about James Naismith blows me away. read this even if you could care less about basketball, it really serves as an excellent counterpoint to the “leave politics out of sports” debate. A really beautiful read.

[Sophie Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

really liked this book!! learned a lot! i just wish there was a little more discussion of women’s basketball and maybe some more recent examples rather than going back a century. loved learning new things about the game though!

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I refuse to concede that Wilt Chamberlain was a good teammate, nor would he dominate in today’s game. He would be great but the idea that he would score 100 points is absolutely preposterous. I will die on this hill.

[Olivia Witherite · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75. Very idealistic but a good read that hits on sport, social issues and more

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS SILLY LITTLE SPORT

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 — super interesting in theory; some principles more realistic/applicable than others, but this fell off the rails a little for me