The Discourse of Basketball
Basketball is more than just a sport. It is a community full of diehard players that play for the love of the game and it is full of influential characters that people of all ages look up to. There is a common language between these individuals that bring them together in a close, tight knit, understanding, community. Simply speaking, there are five players from each team on the court at once and they compete strategically and cooperatively to put the ball in the basket. A team runs plays or uses basketball IQ to score. Players can do a combination of three things to score: pass, dribble, or shoot. For a given player who possesses the ball to move, he or she must dribble. Otherwise, that’s a travel and the other team gets the ball. Passing the ball works the defense hard, making them move and get out of position. Once a defender leaves an opening, it is open for a player with the ball to dribble or drive the ball into the center of the defenders and shoot if they are open. Close in shots are two points, shots past 19 feet and nine inches is worth three points, and a foul shot is worth one. Games have four quarters and the team with the most points at the last buzzer wins.
What is a Discourse?
In all sports, a sort of bond is made between players. It doesn’t matter if you’re on opposite teams because once the final buzzer goes off, everyone is a basketball player. This common understanding that all basketball players share is a bond over the love and knowledge of the sport. Basketball, much like other sports, has its own terms, sayings, and actions called a Discourse. Discourses are
“saying (writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations,”
developed by James Paul Gee in his article “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction” (Gee 6).
It’s the vocab, the lingo, or even the body language of the members of the group give it the title of being a Discourse. Gee has seven “Building Tasks” of how there are sources or artifacts for every Discourse that an individual may study or learn to attempt to join a Discourse. These tasks, significance, practices (activities), identities, relationships, politics, connections, and sign systems and knowledge, are further developed by Darcy Fiano in her paper “Primary Discourse and Expressive Oral Language in a Kindergarten Student” to show what exactly each article does for a particular Discourse (Fiano 66). To prove and show how basketball is a Discourse, I have chosen evidence from the Coach’s Clipboard and the 2014–2015 NBA Official Rulebook. The Discourse among basketball players really revolves around shorter names for extensive plays or sets but is not limited to the interest in sneakers, professional play, and overall anything that has to do with basketball. The building tasks that Gee has developed helps us analyze artifacts and the Discourse as a whole.
Your primary Discourse is your home life because it is the first society you are a part of; therefore, any other Discourse becomes a secondary Discourse. Basketball boils down to a non-dominant secondary Discourse because it doesn’t bring the acquisition of social goods such as money or fame, at least in the early stages. In professional play however, it is definitely a dominant secondary Discourse because players make millions of dollars and some are even known worldwide. The community of legitimate basketball players that play from the heart and play to get better is a distinguished Discourse. Though basketball can be a dominant or non-dominant secondary Discourse, I’m describing as non-dominant because that’s what I’m a part of. As Gee states,
“someone cannot engage in a Discourse in a less than fully fluent manner. You are either in it or you’re not” (Gee 9).
Gee is right because anyone who shows up to a pick-up game and doesn’t understand “winners” or “call your own” are clearly not in the Discourse.
Since you only have one primary Discourse, Gee describes that secondary Discourses are ones that we gain later on in life and “we acquire these fluently to the extent that we are given access to these institutions and allowed apprenticeships within them” (Gee 8). By this, Gee is saying that the more time we spend with members of a part of a specific Discourse, it becomes a sort of apprenticeship and we learn and grow to be in this secondary Discourse. They may know how to play but they definitely don’t know how to speak the language in that sense. They rather come off “a pretender or a beginner” which is a big deal in the non-dominant secondary Discourse basketball community because most likely that individual will not get into the game or if he/she does, the ball will never see their way (Gee 10). That’s just how it is. It is not selfish, it is just the fact that all confident ballers believe that when the ball is in their hands, the team is better off.
Building Tasks
Within Discourses, there are such things as “Building Tasks” that Gee has developed and are further discussed by Fiano. Fiano defines the Practices building task as “the practice (activity) or practices (activities) that are relevant in a context and how are they being enacted” (Fiano 67). In basketball there are many practices because it is a sport full of actions. An example of an action straight from the coaches’ playbook is the triple threat. A common term among most basketball players is “triple threat.” The triple threat is what a great player does whenever the ball is in his or her hands. The player receives the ball and immediately squares up (faces the basket) and loads the ball into the shooters pocket. That way the player can either shoot, pass, or dribble instantly and easily from this position.
The Coach’s Clipboard gives another aspect of the triple threat:
“Additionally, getting into triple-threat position helps you to see the floor, your teammates, gives you a good look into the post, and helps you to see the defense” (Gels, Basketball Fundamentals).
It is easy to tell a novice from an actual member using this “test.” Gee writes,
“groups in a society apply rather constant ‘tests’ of the fluency of the dominant Discourses in which their power is symbolized” (Gee 8).
Though Gee specifically writes dominant Discourse, it is still common in non-dominant ones as well. A test can be just as simple as if you get in a triple threat or not and can be as complex as being able execute a run and jump defense. If you don’t know what a run and jump defense is, you are not in the Discourse and that may be how a test is administered. A coach’s playbook will say in it under a certain play that a player should get into a triple threat so a cutting player can either get out of the paint or come set a screen for the ball-handler. The playbook is full of little terms or sayings that members of the Discourse will know and can execute.
Another example of a test is straight out of every coach’s’ playbook: the run and jump defense. A run and jump is all about the timing. From the Coach’s Clipboard, “Players must stay above the ball at all times, to be in a position to run and jump-switch and stop the dribble to the middle. This is a critical point in this defense” (Gels, Simplified Run and Jump Press). The player defending the ball handler baits the ball handler to go by him or down the sideline but then stops them. Another defender leaves his man and cuts behind the ball handler to tip the ball and go down the court to score. Not being able to execute these two things is a failure of a test and shows that the individual is not a part of that Discourse. Because these simple things are used in everyday basketball language and not everyone can interpret them, basketball is a non-dominant secondary Discourse.
Sign Systems and Knowledge
A major aspect of basketball as a non-dominant secondary Discourse is all of the sign systems and knowledge that are a part of it. Fiano writes that the seventh Building Task of sign systems and knowledge are
“the relevant sign systems and forms of knowledge that are relevant in a context and how they are used and privileged or disprivileged” (Fiano 67).
By this Fiano is saying that with each Discourse there are signs or vocabulary that members use and when an individual uses them fluently and correctly then they are privileged as a member of this community. Some example from the basketball Discourse is any sign that a coach or point guard may give his team. Each team may have different signs but two almost universal signs are the “set a screen” and the “backdoor cut” signs. If the point guard dribbles the ball down the court and is hanging out at the top of the key and is struggling to shake the defender off, he/she may point to the ground beside the defender, signaling set a screen. You may be thinking if it’s universal, why would you use that sign? Wouldn’t the defender know now? Well, that shouldn’t be a problem if the teammate sets a good screen and brings his own defender with him/her.
Another basic yet easy way to tell if someone is in the Discourse is when the point guard tugs on the shoulder part of his/her jersey and makes eye contact with anyone teammate wing side. This should signal the player to v-cut at the ball and then suddenly jab and go behind their defender and receive a sharp pass for an easy tow or a dump down to the big man if their defender picks up the cutting wingman. There are even signs that the referees make that players and coaches must understand for the game to go on. An example is the traveling violation. Players with the ball can only take two steps without dribbling and the Official NBA Rulebook states that
“A player who receives the ball while in progress or upon completing his dribble is allowed a one-two count after gathering the ball and preparing to stop, pass or shoot” (Traveling).
This rule that allows two steps after picking up your dribble accounts for your momentum and gives you a chance to stop without it being illegal. Knowing these can easily help someone assimilate themselves into this Discourse.
Gee’s “Building Tasks” give a sort of benchmark or checklist of aspects for a group or community to be a Discourse. Using Fiano’s analysis of these tasks, we can analyze our own Discourses. Basketball is both dominant secondary and non-dominant because there are levels of athletes that make millions of dollars and acquire social goods and there are levels of athletes that play for fun like in high school or pick-up games.
I specifically analyzed the non-dominant secondary Discourse of high school and pick-up games. Basketball is a non-dominant secondary Discourse because it brings solidarity within a social network, the network of other basketball players. Using evidence from the NBA rulebook and the Coach’s Clipboard further explains how basketball is a secondary Discourse. There are terms or slang used by members of the Discourse in everyday language which are used without skipping a beat in conversation. Signs from the coach to the players are examples of the Discourse as well in that players receive this information subconsciously and just do the task they were told to do. Basketball is a community in which players communicate with almost a whole different language, only fluently spoken by those in the Discourse.
Works Cited
Fiano, Darcy A. “Primary Discourse and Expressive Oral Language in a Kindergarten Student.” Reading Research Quarterly. 49.1(2013): 61–84. Print.
Gee, James Paul. “Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics: Introduction.” Journal of Education. 171.1(1989): 5–15. Print.
Gels, James. “Basketball Fundamentals.” Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Coaching. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
Gels, James. “Simplified Run and Jump Press.” Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Coaching. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
“Traveling.” Official Rules of the National Basketball Association 2014–2015 1.1(2014): 19, 37. Print.
