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Basketball As A Cultural Practice

Earlier this month I had the chance to read “Give and Go: Basketball as a Cultural Practice”, and after being unable to put the book down until I was finished, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with Thomas McLaughlin about his book.

It’s been a couple of year since I was a university student so I enjoyed the opportunity to read a book that read like a university text but left me unable to put it down like a fiction novel. His ability to jump from topics like the practice of masculinity, basketball, racial identity and how basketball is televised, all while keeping me entertained left me riveted. It was a great book and one I would highly recommend to any baskeball fan looking to pass the lazy, hazy days of summer.

Some of the topics we covered during our chat include:

* His background as a professor of Cultural Studies and English at Appalachian State
* In his book he talked at great length about the community of basketball, but he failed to touch upon the topic of blogs, so I had him give his thoughts on blogs and explain whether he thinks they are a good thing or a bad thing for fans.
* In his book he claims he doesn’t buy into the old adage “Sports build character” so I had him further explain the reasons for his disbelief
* In his book he talked about corporate and marketing forces taking over the NBA and I had him apply that to the Jose Calderon/T.J. Ford point guard situation in Toronto this season
* An entire chapter was dedicated to basketball movies so in honour of High Fidelity, I had him give me his All-Time Top 5 Favourite Basketball Movies

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 8:31 am and is filed under Ryan, NCAA, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.