Basketball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Paint

Building Communities One Gym at a Time

BUILDING COMMUNITIES ONE GYM AT A TIME Stephen H. Webb A Question for Rick Mount WHICH WOULD YOU rather be, a high school basketball star or a professional basketball star? True, most professional players were once high school stars, but not all of them, and it’s certainly true that not all high school stars make it to the pros. So pretend you could be only one or the other. Which would it be? You are probably thinking this is a trick question. What is there to choose? High schools are full of kids walking around with letter jackets, while the pros promise a life of fame and fortune. Why be known only by the people in your hometown when you could be on national TV? Believe it or not, there are basketball players who have experienced both local and national fame, and they would choose the former over the latter. Rick “the Rocket” Mount was the hottest shooter in Indiana in the 1960s. He played for Lebanon High School and then starred at Purdue, which is right up the road. He went on to a mixed career in the old ABA and retired at age twenty-eight from the game that had brought him so much fame. Sportswriter Bob Williams asked Mount why he retired early, and he replied: “I still loved the game of basketball, but I didn’t enjoy all of the other things about the pro scene. Pro ball is nothing like high school and college—it’s a job and too much of a cutthroat proposition.”1 After he retired, Mount moved back to his hometown, where he has lived ever since. Mount didn’t earn a fortune in high school or college, but he had the Communitarianism and the Decline of Small-Town Basketball 8 Stephen H. Webb admiration of the people who knew him best. Hundreds showed up to watch him play when he was just a fifth grader. When he announced that he would be going to Miami for his college career, the people of Lebanon were so vocal in their disappointment that he changed his mind and went to Purdue. His local fame was so great that the national media caught up with him. He was the first high school–team athlete featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. In that February 14, 1966, issue, Frank Deford wrote that he “may be as good a high school basketball player as there ever was.” Mount’s basketball skills were valued by his townsfolk because they epitomized the virtue of hard work. He was not a flashy player, but he had a perfect jump shot, which was the product of countless hours of disciplined practice. When he played for a national audience, those same skills were valued according to the supply and demand of the marketplace . He made more money, but he lost some of the meaning of the game he loved. Clearly, he would choose being a high school star over a professional one. What Is a Community? Rick Mount’s attitude toward the pros serves as a good example of a philosophical movement called communitarianism. Communitarianism is hard to define because it is known as much for what it rejects as for what it stands for. Communitarians are political philosophers who believe , as you might guess from their name, that the needs of the community outweigh the desires of the individual. Most modern philosophical theories about what makes for a good society begin with the individual. These theories are often called “liberal ,” though that shouldn’t be confused with the contemporary use of that label. Liberal political theories have shaped the political beliefs of both Democrats and Republicans. These theories argue that the foundation of social order is individual rights and that these rights are universal in scope. Notice that there are two parts to this claim. First, philosophical liberals begin their thinking with individuals. Individuals are the most basic reality, while communities are considered little more than an aggregation of individuals. Second, philosophical liberals insist that human rights apply to everyone, regardless of who they are or where they live. 9 Building Communities One Gym at a Time Philosophical liberals thus are more interested in those aspects of human nature that are shared by everyone, not the local customs, rituals, and beliefs that distinguish one group from another. When philosophical liberals begin with individual rights, they quickly...