Thread 150340442

What made it so popular in the first place? Do you play or would you like to learn?

the ruleset of basketball is easy and intuitive. The better question is how did football and baseball become popular

>>150340442 (OP)
Jordan made it cool

it's less influential than it used to be
kids care more about youtubers than scripted sports

nobody in this thread can guard me

>>150340442 (OP)
Easy to learn, doesn't require much space, doesn't require many players for a full game AND scales down easily (1v1 and 3v3 are both popular at a recreational level), and a long tradition of popularity at the collegiate level.

>>150340815
too smol

>>150340815
His moustache looks painted

>>150340442 (OP)
It's easy for every single school in the country to play it regardless of population, climate or wealth

>>150340442 (OP)
I grew up in Salt Lake City in the 90s in a VERY mormon neighborhood.
Mormons fucking LOVE apehoop. Most of their churches have a full court that they convert into a seating area for Sunday services.
Small market and sample size but it was enough to get them an NBA team.

>>150341246
because it is, just like those tattoos

>>150340442 (OP)
The American culture is centered around niggers. They have holidays for niggers. They killed hundreds of thousands of white men to free niggers. They listen to nigger music. They elect a nigger as their president. They dress and act like niggers. They draw the entirety of their modern culture from niggers. They post sassy gifs about niggers. They watch sportsball in worship of niggers. Their biggest event of the year involves throwing parties in honor of niggers playing sports. They use nigger slang like "bruh" and "thot". When you say "Martin Luther" they're not thinking of the father of protestantism. They're thinking of the nigger. Their cities are completely overrun with niggers. They worship their ZOGbot police force disproportionately filled with niggers and their global police force of soldiers filled with niggers. Their men sit around watching nigger ball while their women sit around watching nigger talk shows. They worship niggers like Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson and the late Mike Tyson while attacking the whites who actually built their country before niggers took over. Their movies are filled with niggers and their music charts are topped by niggers. They send niggers to the Olympics and celebrate when the niggers win because those niggers are true red blooded american niggers. They watch nigger porn to a point where "BBC" does not make them think of an international media company but about nigger penises instead. They will tell you how much they hate niggers and how the mutt's law meme is a stale joke and they are just pretending to love niggers but the evidence speaks for itself in that America has always been and will be a nation of nigger loving niggers

>>150342955
>t.jelaous brown/Asian faggot that is jealous that he's culturally irrelevant in western countries

>>150340442 (OP)
it was our favorite children's gym game taken too far. the culmination of the sport should be an 8th grade championship like the National Spelling Bee

>>150342824
It’s funny how the auras of baseball and basketball are the complete opposite of their actual biggest fans. Baseball is associated with romantic pastoralism when it’s really urbanites that go the craziest for it. Meanwhile basketball is associated with the inner city but its biggest fans are hicks in the Midwest and North Carolina.

>>150344248
>Baseball is associated with romantic pastoralism when it’s really urbanites that go the craziest for it. Meanwhile basketball is associated with the inner city but its biggest fans are hicks in the Midwest and North Carolina.
What causes this?

>>150340442 (OP)
it's the most popular and easy to pick up and play rec sport. Too hard to do baseball stuff outside of catch, same for football especially after early 20s unless it's flag or something, and soccer is for women and kids. A ball and a hoop has you set for bball and it has a bunch of games no matter the player count. There's a very interesting observation to be made about basketball's general popularity vs the popularity of the nba though which has quite a bit of separation

>>150344697
Nothing, he's a retard

It's so cheap to have fun with, all you need is a hoop and a ball, not even much space needed like in soccer

No one outside of New York, California or Boston cares about the NBA. College basketball however is huge everywhere.

>>150342955
okay but basketball was invented by a Canadian

>>150345586
Do Canadians play basketball?

>>150340539
i think baseball became popular as an everyman and professional barnstorming sport and football definitely became popular as a college sport

>>150346883
What's basketball then?

>>150346507
we finsihed 3rd place at the last world cup. Have the most NBA players outside of the USA, ranked top 5 in the world and have the current NBA MVP

>>150343631
>sport where being tall is the primary skill
>it should only be played by children

Baseball was more popular when the US was a more rural country. You really can't play baseball very well in a suburban yard. We've all done it but you really need to go to a field somewhere.
Football is easy to play in any yard and all you need is the football itself. You have to remove field goals from the game but otherwise can mostly play anywhere.
Basketball is unique in that it can be practiced without anyone else. You won't learn how to defend or get around other players, but you can practice shooting, which is a very large part of the game. You do need a hoop mounted on something and of course the ball. Since they take up relatively little space compared to the other two sports, basketball courts are all over the place.

>>150346507
Yes. It's the most popular sport in the biggest city.

>>150344697
It's not true. Basketball is huge in Indiana and NC but it's not a rural vs urban divide. Idk about baseball.

>>150348000
all three sports are big in the heartland, but as you get to the coasts basketball takes over. the vast majority of football players come from the south

>>150344248
>>150344697
There's a lot less urban/rural cultural divide in this country than people hype it up to be. Sure they may vote a bit different, dress 5 years behind the city folk and not have as many muslims, hindus and jews, but the fundamental American identity is pretty much the same. UCLA is also a storied legacy school, it's best player was Lew Alcindor and he came from New York City.
Hockey, which is as close to a regional sport as we have has been doing well expanding into the sunbelt and PNW and even has teams in Vegas and Tampa now.
Basketball's legacy in American culture is major. The Jordan Brand is one of Nike's staples. Basketball shoes are the most popular shoes for most demographics at this point, even young women are typically in a pair of basketball shoes now, especially counting the Chuck Taylor as a Basketball Shoe, as it was the OG basketball shoe. And that's how it even permeates into Punk Rock culture and the Ramones.
Then you have the general American cultural inclination to giants and men of incredible strength that goes all the way back to classical mythology, and the fact that basketball is full of especially great players doing incredible feats gives it a resonation in the news, whether it's Kobe scoring 81 points or Jokic averaging a triple double to Americans it shows this John Henry/Superman type character doing their thing.
Overall Football has the ratings, baseball has the legacy, but basketball is the one that at the moment, penetrates into the American identity most. Through fashion, music, film, celebrity, international relations, and legendary athletes.
Beyond any sport it brings Americans of all regions, colors and beliefs together.

>>150342955
>nigg
Came here for this reasonable explanation

>>150340442 (OP)
There are many courts, particularly in urban areas, and it can be played at an extremely casual level. It doesn’t require a lot of equipment, which also makes it easy to play. I attended a couple of clinics as a kid but I was too autistic to care about sports. The nba is still popular but it’s dying in influence. People care a lot less about sports these days. The nba also has a reputation for being a league for gossip enjoyers and casuals

>>150357113
>attended a couple of clinics
Medical clinics for basketball?

>>150361935
Midnight Basketball was part of the universal healthcare law that Bill and Hillary Clinton tried to get passed in the 90s. The theory was that if the government healthcare system paid for late night basketball in urban neighborhoods, there would be less gang conflict, saving the system money due to less trauma care when someone gets shot.
That aside, the other anon probably just meant clinic as in an instructional class teaching basketball. It's a common usage for the term in en-us.

It's fun to just go shoot some hoops every now and them. See if you still have the stroke. I have no handles or moves but I can drain shit.

Really enjoy playing pic related. Don't give a shit about the tickets, just like shooting hoops rapidly. All of the reasonably priced home units are dogshit so I'm thinking about /diy/ing one.

>>150340442 (OP)
It depends on the city. A place like LA where they have the Lakers is going to be a basketball city where a place like Philadelphia will be the least popular. NBA outpriced their fans though and most people stopped giving a shit for the most part unless the playoffs are going on. The best days of the NBA are behind it

>>150340442 (OP)
>What made it so popular in the first place?
The fact that literally anyone can just go to their local park, local gym, not even needing anything but a pair of shoes, and can play a relatively athletic game with like 10 other people.
Low barrier to entry and entertaining to watch.

>>150340442 (OP)
A very successful ad campaign in the 90s because of Jordan, the Bulls and Nike shoes. I did play basketball and I was relatively tall in highschool but I sucked at it.

>>150355099
>fashion
not until they ditch the booty shorts and bring back the Iverson shorts

>>150340442 (OP)
Jordan era plus the occasional Rodman headlines.

>>150362077
Very interesting, thank you.
>Midnight Basketball was part of the universal healthcare law that Bill and Hillary Clinton tried to get passed in the 90s.
Why didn't it pass?

>>150353606
You’re onto something here. Basketball also can be played with less violence than football, it’s a safe sport for kids to play during their lunch break (recess or whatever) and it’s pretty safe to play against people of different levels of skill and experience whereas in football you’ll injure them and it won’t be fun.
You’re right about the space issue with baseball, basketball can be played anywhere flat with a hoop roughly half court and you can play practically the same as the full game. It’s also very easy to play indoors so cold weather is less of an issue

>>150374996
Do people play basketball in Ireland?

>>150340442 (OP)
Basketball became popular as a YMCA and College Sport, then the NBA took off when Larry Byrd and Magic Johnson entered the league, the two already having a rivalry from the 1979 college final. Jordan in the 90's cemented its popularity. However, NBA has somewhat waned since the peak of the Lebron-Curry rivalry, and its somewhat dependent on popular star power. The college tournament is also very popular, and pretty much everyone fills out some office/friend pool predicting every single game in a 64 team tournament.