Boston presented an ideal of basketball in action—hoops as jazz, or as democracy.
The N.B.A. makes for good television because basketball’s a sport that bends around stars. The players wear no face-obstructing gear—no helmets, no long-brimmed hats casting shadows—and the presence of a single great performer can guarantee a degree of success for his team. Satisfaction after a made shot, befuddlement after a miss, irritation at a teammate who keeps rushing to the wrong spot: it’s all clear as day, written on the body as much as on the face. Few things are more thrilling than the sudden onrush of protagonism that clings to a player who’s hit a few shots in a row and is about to make the story of the game about himself. The Finals, especially, are a factory for new stars.
Television cameras—in the most immediate case, the ABC cameras that captured the recently concluded Finals confrontation, between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks—participate in this effect. They find the right figures and follow them around the court, tracking their moods. Back in the nineties, NBC helped to usher in the era of Michael Jordan; when he wasn’t on camera, making magic, broadcasters such as Bob Costas were busy eloquently showering him with stardust. Jordan became not just a player in a game but a character in a story.
This story is from the July 01, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 01, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The Crackdown
Fighting drug gangs, a young President declares war within his own country.
In Search of Lost Time
The strange journey of John Lennon's stolen Patek Philippe watch.
Books – Everything in Hand
The C.I.A.'s covert ops have mattered-but not in the way that it hoped.
UNHOLY TRINITY
“Kinds of Kindness.”
HERO BALL
Who was the main character of the N.B.A. Finals?
MEDIEVAL LONGING
The fourteenth-century love songs of Guillaume de Machaut.
THE NORTH STAR
Harriet Tubman’ radical faith.
THE TAIWAN TANGLE
Can we deter belligerence in the strait without provoking it?
VINCENT'S PARTY
The party was in full swing. Evelyn could hear the sexy blare of the trad jazz almost as soon as she got off the bus at St. Mary Redcliffe and began walking over to the Steam Packet, the pub that Vincent—who was a friend of Evelyn’s older sister, Moira—had commandeered for the evening.
GROWING PAINS
In Phoenix's upscale suburbs, authorities slowly realized that the Gilbert Goons might be a violent teen gang.