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James Naismith, a graduate student at Springfield college, creates the game of basketball for an assignment. The assignment was to create an age inclusive indoor game, that specifically was able to avoid the cold winter temperatures that plagued Baseball; America's most popular sport at the time (1). -
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Naismith's original rules stand in stark contrast to what we see in basketball today. His original rules, which only contain 13 guidelines, push a gentleman approach towards the game (2). This is very similar to baseball at the time, and sports were seen as a recreational gentlemanly activity rather than the lively competitions we see today. In general men were seen to be the perfect gentleman and the leader of a family in this time period. -
The game of basketball exploded in popularity over the course of the next 60 years spreading to the creation of professional leagues and becoming popular within college athletics. The quick increase in basketball popularity was largely due to the rapid advancement of technologies and spread of cultures during the world at this time (3). The idea of the "gentleman" was severely damaged and challenged by multiple world wars, American intervention in Europe, and new world altering technologies.
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The still standing NBA was founded in 1946 as a merger between two of the countries most successful leagues, Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball league (4). Similar to other sports and business, organizations were beginning to come together to create huge corporations that would seemingly outweighed the voice of the people and out-shadowed every man or women's "American Dream". -
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This contract marked the first time the league had signed off its exclusive broadcasting rights to one singular media outlet. In society and sports specifically media was beginning to become and extremely profitable area of business (5). Events such as the first televised presidential debate, political commentaries, and sports as well created a huge entertainment market for the increasing amount of families that owned a television set. -
New changes to the way the game was played, including the slam dunk and three point shot created a more upbeat and entertaining game(6). More emotion was displayed on the court and many players created a personality for themselves that served to separate themselves from many of the others in the league. This new added "spunk" to the game allowed many of the best pro players and fans of the game to distance themselves from previous corporatism and create images for themselves.
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The creation of the Air Jordan sneaker for basketball's biggest star Michael Jordan is the epitome of the resurgence on individualism and flair seen in basketball and societies impacted by basketball in the 1980's. The Air Jordan made players the new faces of athletic apparel companies through endorsements, and players around the NBA began wearing the own custom shoes like Jordan. When the deal with Jordan was made in 1984 Nike anticipated only three million dollars in sales. -
These profits goals are now met every 5 hours by Nike Jordan products(7). Air Jordans created an entire sneaker culture that engulfed many of the times youth, and engaged them in basketball. The purpose in creating the Air Jordan was to capitalize on the rising feeling of showmanship exhibited in sports, Hollywood, and entertainment at the time. The sneakers actually violated league policy and Jordan was fined thousands of dollars for every game he wore the shoe, only for Nike to pay the fines.
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Television and player contracts became more lucrative as entertainment technologies improved and youth populations rose.
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On June 21, 1997 the first ever game in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) was played between the Los Angeles Sparks and the New York Liberty. Only a year prior the NBA had allocated resources and funds to build a sustainable professional basketball league in the United States (8). While gender equality movements ran rampant in this time sports became more equal at the collegiate level thanks to Title IX; however, equality in professional sports remained untouched. -
While Title IX provided more outlets for female athletes to compete in high level sports, professional leagues for women was still an unfamiliar concept. In this time many males were angry about the advancements in women's sports and the push for equality. Knowing that it would hurt revenues and profits the NBA still publicly funded the WNBA, creating the most well known Women's professional sports league in the United States. Similar to the NBA actions, misogyny needed to be cut out of society.
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Owners had the goal of creating a harder "Salary cap" which players felt was detrimental to their abilities to receive better payments. First very real example of players holding out from playing and nearly cancelling an entire year of basketball because they felt they were being financially abused (9). This attitude towards management and whistleblower culture became normalized attitude in some workplace environments and professional sports.
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In this firm show of support, the NBA became the first major corporation, massive media market, or professional league to demonstrate complete unified support of BLM. The NBA's ability to stand up for BLM while keeping the entire association on the same page, was followed by other professional leagues and media outlets. The picture that is this artifact shows the beauty in which the NBA stood up to police brutality, and became a pioneer for other outlets with massive audiences. -
The NBA "bubble" was the safety procedure put in place for the NBA to resume play during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Running concurrent to start of the plan was the murder of George Floyd and subsequent demonstrations. Due to these rising social tensions in the country, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and leading players in the league agreed that all league personal would wear apparel supporting BLM similar to the shirts and court designs shown in the artifact (11).
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(Image 8)
At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, few could predict that in merely months the greatest period of social change in the 21st century would happen. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, a series of protests that re-emerged into national spotlight due to the tragic murder of George Floyd (10). Floyd's murder at the hands of police brutality ignited demonstrations in the name of ending inequality around the country and world. This artifact represents the NBA's response.