Why do we love basketball? This is a question that I have often been asked. I could simply focus on the fact that it is the most beautiful sport in the world and that it is l’fun to practice, but that would be cutting corners, wouldn’t it?
To quote a famous basketball movie (He Got Game): basketball is poetry in movement and the players are its artists.
We love basketball for the individual prowess of its athletes.
Few professionals in the world of sports display more impressive athletic efforts than a high-caliber basketball player who launches more than three feet from the basket to crash a massive dunk or complete the most entertaining play possible, a alleyoop …But almost anything can be done with an orange ball in one’s hands, provided one has enough skill – superhuman athleticism or not. Anyone can make a basket.
It’s a feeling that can hardly be recreated in other sports. It’s hard to skate across an ocean like Connor McDavid. It’s hard to throw a touchdown like Tom Brady, even harder to hit a home run like Barry Bonds. But in a park, with a ball and a basket as your only friends – an extra point if a video game theme song NBA 2K plays in the ears – we can become LeBron James, we can become Stephen Curry, we can recreate the iconic shot of Kawhi Leonard’s career. We are encouraged to be like Michael Jordan.
I challenge you to give me a more satisfying sound for hoop heads than a ball passing through the basket. A swish very dry and sonorous. Without doubt, basketball is the most dynamic and spectacular sport to watch, at its highest level.
We love basketball because it is the sport that has understood the importance of culture.
And what better example than that of the world of shoes? During my first radio column, William Thériault, founding pillar of AlleyOop360, invited me to fill a block in the Sunday afternoon show whose subject was as I wished. It was without hesitation that I accepted the invitation and immediately began researching my column on the world of basketball shoes.
In 1984, the Nike company created an unrivaled phenomenon with the creation of the Nike Air Jordan. Who would have believed it when, 40 years later, the model persists within the culture? This is also where the idea that it is possible to achieve the status of our idols comes from: Be like Mike. In 2024, every shoe can be linked to an event in a player’s career. There Jordan 3 is iconic for being the one MJ wore when he Dunke from the free throw line, 11 for her role in the film Space Jamthe 6 for having been the one worn when the Bulls won their first championship in 1991, etc.
Today, the link between basketball and culture goes even beyond shoes: it takes on its full meaning in hip-hop, in clothing styles and even in the lifestyles of many fans. We love basketball, of course, but we also love everything that surrounds it. We wouldn’t live without it.
S3, É16: Western Conference, sneaker culture and Mathurin x Dort | AlleyOop360
Interesting episode this week: the changing of the guard in the West, a special “sneakers” column, then a look back at the Mathurin-Dort match.
We love basketball because the players who play it become heroes.
This is a demarcation that we do not see elsewhere in North America. It’s a jersey, shorts, shoes and that’s it. The athletes who make basketball beautiful have faces that young people can identify with. Beyond the uniform and the number on their back, we know them by their first name, an underrated accomplishment in my opinion. Larry, Magic, Michael, Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, Steph, Luka… And although the shoe companies sell us the idea of becoming like these players, the prowess and accomplishments of the latter make them real superheroes, immortal icons.
We love basketball for the success stories.
It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter. I will never be grateful enough for what basketball gave me in my early journalistic career. It’s because of stories like AlleyOop360 that we love basketball. We love basketball for passionate people. Local stories are why we love basketball. It is out of love for sport that the Alliance de Montréal persists in making its place in the Quebec sports scene, the same for the Toundra de Montréal and so many other important players in the field.
Basketball, potentially more than many other hobbies, has the very special power to get a young person off the street, to encourage them to take their studies seriously, to allow them a whole new perspective on life or even to bring him invaluable lessons and encounters, which would probably never have happened without the presence of basketball on his journey.
We also love it for the connections and friendships that are created thanks to this sport, teammates and colleagues alike.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the adventure, we look forward to seeing you again soon.
To read :
Basketball in Quebec is in good hands | AlleyOop360
Here is a goodbye letter from Liam Houde.
The Story Behind AlleyOop360, 2019 to 2024 | AlleyOop360
Here is a goodbye letter from Kevin Vallée.
Emilio Constanza
2024-06-22 00:12:27
#love #basketball #AlleyOop360
