Filed under: Basketball, Bread City, NBA All Star Game, New York Knicks, Politics, Stephon Marbury
LET’S MAKE STEPHON MARBURY THE FIRST ALL STAR TO PLAY 0 REGULAR SEASON MINUTES. YES WE CAN!
Filed under: Bread City, Brooklyn, Fulton Mall, Hustling, Photography, Poetry | Tags: Brooklyn Poetry
suitcases packed with cigarettes
new sneakers sealed in plastic
men hustling umbrellas
hoping for the storm to break
photo by Bonnie Natko
Filed under: Basketball, Bread City, Italy, Michael Jordan | Tags: Basketball History
Summertime ball in Trieste, Italy, land of weak backboards. Before Jordan could beat the Celtics, he still came correct. Notice that he is the only dude on the court without socks up to his knees.
doneFiled under: Basketball, Bread City, Poetry, Sherman Alexie | Tags: Basketball Poetry, Creative Basketball Photography, Native America
It is just a game
we are told by those
who cannot play it
unless it is play.
For us, it is war,
often desperate
and without reason.
We throw our body
against another
body. We learn to
hate each other, hate
the ball, hate the hoop,
hate the fallen snow,
hate our clumsy hands,
hate our thirsty mouths
when we drink from
the fountain. We hate
our fathers. We hate
our mothers. We hate
the face in our mirror.
We play basketball
because we want to
separate love from
hate, and because we
know how to keep score.
– Excerpted from Sherman Alexie’s five-part poem, Why We Play Basketball
Fans of athletic metaphors, take note: Barack Obama is a wily player of pickup basketball, the version of the game with unspoken rules, no referee and lots of elbows. He has been playing since adolescence, on cracked-asphalt playgrounds and at exclusive health clubs, developing a quick offensive style, a left-handed jump shot and relationships that have extended into the political arena.
- Jodi Kantor, The New York Times, 06/01/07
