FYS: Hoop Style - The Culture, Language, and Iconography of the NBA

3 Credits.

In this First-Year Seminar, we’ll gather high-level hoopheads to study the National Basketball Association (the coolest professional sports league in the world). Our key questions will be why is the NBA so dope and how did it get to be so dope? Said another way, we’ll use the methods of humanistic, linguistic, and rhetorical visual analysis to study the culture, language, and iconography of the NBA. No zone defenses here: we’re bringing a full-court press to cultural artifacts like the dunk contest, the euro-step, Allen Iverson’s hip-hop fashion (and David Stern’s short-lived player dress code), why some folks say they like the college game better than the pro game, uniform/court/mascot designs, how advanced statistical analytics have the changed the game (deep breath), and much, much more. We’ll read texts like David Halberstam’s The Breaks of the Game (about the 1978 Portland Trailblazers) and the posts from the now defunct but very influential FreeDarko blog. We’ll watch videos like the 1990s Chicago Bulls documentary The Last Dance, Hustle, and Hoop Dreams. Oh, and if you’re into experiential learning, we’ll probably check out a Wizards game in D.C. and play a little pick up at the gym. I hope my knees hold up. See you at the rim.