I've got a guest post on the subject at FreeDarko.
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Basketball and Imperialism
07 Nov 2007 11:58 am
Comments (28)
Can I be happy about beating the Nuggets? Not a glimmer of defense in the whole game from either team, but still.
On the actual subject of your post, does it bother you that under your analogy, American soft power continues imperialism with a smiley face? The NBA develops talent the world over and then skims off the best for its own use as the World Bank develops markets the world over and then subjects them to American trade rules? Something like that.
the country is, at the moments [sic], under the grips
Is this a shout out to those who nitpick the spelling and grammer? There is hope for a shout out to us blog readers in the book, right?
Anyway, I fail to see how US basketball is like a foreign policy grounded in international law. After all, we don't have a trapezoidal lane, and our three-point line is 23'9". Clearly, we are interested in going our own way and not caring how the rest of the world does it.
Can I be happy about beating the Nuggets?
Yes, in that Zach and Curry played well together, which was obviously a big question mark going into the season. Fun game, BTW.
"Can I be happy about beating the Nuggets? Not a glimmer of defense in the whole game from either team, but still."
It was a damn fun game, despite the outcome. Or as Clyde would say, it was a provocative game. Eddy actually did something productive besides scoring the basketball for the first time in his career.
Balkman was the real difference maker.
The Nuggets are going to have a tough Eastern road trip. Their top 3 point guards are all injured, which means Iverson has to run the point rather than playing the '2', which screws up the offense. And both Nene and K-Mart are hobbling and out of shape.
Hopefully, things start to come together in January.
And in Clyde's favor, he recognized Kleiza's contributions on the defensive end of the floor, which most observers seem oblivious to.
Balkman was the real difference maker.
When your bench rotation guys are Balkman, David Lee and Nate Robinson, you've got some energy coming into the game, which is real nice.
Matt:
I hate it when facts get in the way of a good story, but the spread of baseball in Latin America and Asia was not a product of imperialism.
Baseball was introduced in Cuba in the 1860s, and it was the Cubans who were responsible for spreading baseball throughout various other Latin American countries. All of that predated the Spanish-American war.
Baseball was introducted in Japan in the 1870s.
cricket is the rotting corpse of British imperialism
Wonder what your pal Andy has to say about that. On behalf of the Commonwealth, I demand a guest post on your blog.
Holy shit, FreeDarko? You really are cool. When do you guest post at Deadspin?
I don't have the theory or the hockey knowledge or indeed the sticktoitive-ness to do a FreeDarko for hockey, but someone should. Theory of Ice is a good start, but not pop enough and Habs-centric (which I deem a feature, however, not a bug).
Sorry, Matt, I think your theory is a little off here. Baseball in Japan was popular well before we garrisoned any troops there. It was introduced in Japan in 1872, and was popular enough for U.S- Japan baseball games in 1896-- even before the Spanish American war.
it's official, your book is superfluous. That post is about as awesome as an American foreign policy critique can get.
Your insult to cricket is duly noted. Perhaps you want your admirers from the member countries of the Commonwealth to go away.
"Sorry, Matt, I think your theory is a little off here. Baseball in Japan was popular well before we garrisoned any troops there. It was introduced in Japan in 1872"
Huh. I wonder if anything interesting had happened in US/Japan relations in the years previous to that...
Why you got to take shots at my man Hedo?
Also, does dropping the "I know Bethlehem Shoals" card get you more action at parties?
Matt, are you capable of writing anything without taking at shot at Israel? Or is self-hate how you define yourself?
WRONG WRONG WRONG
Matt, baseball was wildly popular in Japan during World War 2, hell, it has been a popular sport there since the 1870s for Christsakes.
It was spread in Korea and Taiwan not by *us* but by Japanese well before the Americans smashed the Rising Sun.
Yes, baseball is popular in Latin America. But imperialism doesn't explain why it's wildly popular in Venezuela.
Furthermore, by your ridiculous analogy, we should have seen baseball become a popular sport in the Philippines. You know, the imperial possession we actually owned as an imperial power? For half a century?
Oh, right, no one plays baseball there.
And you're edging into "clever" bullshit here.
The interesting test of the soft power paradigm will be the direction of NBA expansion. Do we, like soccer, keep the NBA a domestic league yet spawn some global competition for the top clubs (like the UEFA Champions League)? Or does all this soft power stuff get thrown out the window when we expect NBA franchises, directed from the offices in New York, to sprout up in Rome, Shanghai, Madrid, Moscow, and Sydney.
Another interesting development will be the ever-increasing payrolls of European clubs. A few (CSKA, Tau, Barca) now have payrolls which are within spitting distance of the bottom NBA clubs. Does Stern feel the need to crush these Euro powers before they compete for mid-level American free agents? Or, is there a compromise to be worked out?
Overall, I agree with Matt's thesis. However, there are some serious minefields ahead.
Petey,
his thesis is that when we occupy places, we brought baseball.
If you're going to bring up that, I'd respond with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration
Or this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sino-Japanese_War
Or especially this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War
Come on, you know that Japan is the only country to have avoided imperialism and turned itself into one of the empires.
Great stuff, Matt. But it does constitute a grand, self-serving symbolic narrative that plays fast and loose with the facts, and it is therefore an essentially conservative blog post. Sorry.
Those upset by the lack of factual accuracy in my argument need to expand your mental horizons.
:)
If you let me edit your posts, I'll expand my mental horizons as far as you want
"a grand, self-serving symbolic narrative that plays fast and loose with the facts"
"edging into "clever" bullshit"
I'm guessing these people don't read much FreeDarko.
It is Free Darko. You can kind of write whatever the hell you want.
"a grand, self-serving symbolic narrative that plays fast and loose with the facts"
"edging into "clever" bullshit"
I'm guessing these people don't read much FreeDarko.
Actually, that's one of the reasons why I don't.
I did notice that Henry Abbott linked to Matthew's post today, though.
"Come on, you know that Japan is the only country to have avoided imperialism and turned itself into one of the empires."
Sure. But if the Black Ships that opened up Japan after 200 years of isolation had flown the Union Jack, cricket would be the Japanese mania.
First mover advantage, y'know.
My god, you're turning into George Will, only slightly more irritating.
That goofy post on another site generated more good comments than any serious psots on this blog ever has.
By the way, have you ever noticed that when someone posts something (anything) on FD, you get huge # of fawning comments. It's like if Louis XIV had a blog. I think it's because most of what they write is pretty hard to understand and they have this aura of hipness. If you want ot be hip you have to pretend to get it. For a long time I though it was an arty joke.
Comments closed November 21, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
Since you included an Iverson pic, I approve of your guest post before even reading it.
Posted by Petey | November 7, 2007 12:05 PM