Heel or Hindrance: Masculinity and Respectability in the NBA
Notes: To preface this piece, it’s important to note that this was written for a linguistic anthropology class. It may become quite obvious early on given some of the disciplinarily-specific language [umm…jargon], but I hope the ideas come through nonetheless. Having had some distance from the paper over the last few months, there are definitely parts of my argument I would either change or add more nuance to. I don’t particularly care to change these sections right now, and I’d like to keep the paper in its original form as much as possible. I changed the title of the paper and added some images, but everything else is as originally written a few months ago. Let me know what you think, and be sure to subscribe at the bottom of the article for more!
Written May 12, 2023
Introduction
If you really think about it, sports are just men’s reality TV. At least that’s what my partner told me after I explained the unique stakes of a match between Chelsea Football Club and Arsenal Football Club, two teams in the top-flight Premier League division of English Football. Her remark, of course, was followed by my immediate rebuttal laying out an ostensible distinction between sports television and “reality tv”. Sports television primarily centered around the event of the sport and competition, whereas “reality tv” reproduced low-grade formulaic “content” that was narratively carried by post-production. In this encounter, several things were made clear upon reflection. The first is an apparent distinction between “content” and “art” as distinctly different categories, rooted in an idea of “content” as embedded within a presumed late capitalist profit-driven aesthetic. “Art”, on the other hand, was “art for art’s sake”.
This attentional focus on an overly deterministic “formal” model of media is characterized in print by the likes of Adorno and Horkheimer in their seminal text, The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception (2000). In my mapping of reality tv to “content”, an implicit signification is made based on a presumed profit-driven aesthetic that relegated reality tv outside the realm of “art”. Ganti explores this sort of “boundary-work” that gets mobilized as a form of social legitimacy amongst filmmakers in the Hindi Film Industry (2014). Second, this “content” came to be legible through a signification of “low-grade” production. Through a rough indexing of the aesthetic features of reality TV–thanks to hours, or rather weeks, of sitting through such classified reality tv shows with my partner–I made an indexical connection to this form of entertainment as “low-grade” and secondarily as “content”.
It warrants a deeper interrogation of how such work, or rather why such work gets signified as “low-grade content”. A far too early reading would lean towards a presumed linkage to reality tv as a gendered form of entertainment for women (Vino, 2014; Tschinkel, 2018; Isaac, 2012). This is also implicity marked in my partner’s initial statement: Reality TV for men, pointing to an unspoken reality TV “not” for men. Reality TV-watching thus becomes an emasculating label, and when placed next to “men’s” as in “men’s reality TV” it exists almost as a contradiction of masculinity. The labeling symbolized a demasculinization, a triviality, and perhaps a belittling of what I perceived to be a form of entertainment drastically removed from “reality TV” as such. One distinction still supposedly exists in my contrast between reality TV and live television; that of reality TV as a pre-recorded product, and sports television as a live event. However, even this distinction becomes blurry. Amidst all its technical blunders, Love is Blind, a Netflix-distributed reality TV show showcased their first live broadcast episode in 2023. Even before this moment, however, what might we make of recorded live games re-broadcasted for later viewing?
The spectatorship of televised sports is deeply informed by particular production aesthetics usually established in relation to the specific sport in question. For example, this is marked by a certain “newness” that becomes legible when the National Basketball Association (NBA) broadcasts establish a new camera angle from which to spectate the game. The N.Y. Mets Game Director John Demarsico similarly points to such baseball-specific cinematic elements, inspired by existing sports films and incorporated into the live broadcast. This spectatorship also extends beyond what might become narrowly conceptualized as a sports event.
Sports media on cable, streaming services, and social media platforms, has emerged as a multi-billion dollar industry allowing for around-the-clock coverage on domestic and international sports leagues. Pushing our understanding of sports media outside of merely the live-televised event allows us to explore the worlds that become produced across media platforms. This is quite visible in my initial narrativizing of the match between Chelsea Football Club and Arsenal Football Club to my partner. Or better yet, the recent 2022 World Cup match that saw Morocco playing France in the World Cup semi-finals. Not only was it the first time an African country made it to that stage in the competition, but it also marked a symbolic interaction between former colonizer and colonized (Dubois 2022; Adler 2022; Sengupta 2022; Cornwell 2022).
These narratives become contextualized in various ways by commentators, supporters, and rivals. As Lavelle (2010) argues through a discourse analysis of NBA commentary, “game commentary is a rich source of discussion about race, ethnicity, and gender.” More importantly for our case, this commentary “extends beyond narrating the on court action” (294). When we extend beyond the frame of the on-court action, we can start to interrogate the realms of fandom, celebrity, and spectacle implicated in sports worlds. We also begin to make a case for more robust attention to the role of sports in everyday life within the discipline of anthropology.
How might the televisual nature and production of sports media be more in line with “reality tv” than we might initially think? Would we be able to view sports as a masculinized version of “reality tv”? Such an inquiry would require a comparative analysis of sports media and what we have come to symbolize as “reality tv”, the gendered dynamics, and the perlocutionary effects – a project outside the limits of this paper. However, we might start with an analysis of the production of sports media to bring into focus the ways in which various actors expand an engagement with sports outside of merely the sports event.
I propose an orientation towards narrative in sports media to better understand the production of celebrity, fandom culture, and spectacle–what we might playfully define as “sports lore”, a concept that has seemingly been mobilized by astute fans as such.3 This idea of lore opens us up to the potential ideological mobilizations of race, gender, national identity, and class. Lore also allows us to think of the celebrity as a produced figure embedded within a temporal lineage of events marked by their appeal as spectacle. I want to start this exploration of sports as narrativized, produced, and mediated lore with a specific example to illustrate such processes of narrativization around sports. Analytically and methodologically, this perhaps maps onto William Mazzarella’s (2004) proposed framing around “nodes of mediation”. In tuning into a particular ‘node’, we can peel back the layers of mediation to 1.) understand how these nodes come into semiotic significance, and 2.) make sense of the “ideological work” embedded in such moments of semiotic happening (Irvine, 2021). I will analyze a recent event in the NBA playoffs, and argue that the event highlights negotiations around masculinity and implicit cultural codes of the NBA.
Case Study: Dillon Brooks as the “heel”
After winning a playoff game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Dillon Brooks, a player on the Memphis Grizzlies, opened himself to post-game media availability–a practice where reporters enter the team’s locker room to typically ask questions about the game to specific players. In this particular post-game media questioning, a reporter asked Dillon Brooks about an event during the game:
Reporter: There are some people-, Lakers are making that run, they get it to 14, you and LeBron have that exchange. There are people out there that say, maybe you shouldn’t do that with one of the better players in the game. What, I guess what were you thinking about that?
Dillon Brooks: I don’t care, he’s old. You know what I mean, that’s-, I was waiting for that-, I was expecting him to do that Game 4, Game 5. He wanted to say something when I got my fourth foul. Um, shoulda been saying that earlier on. Um, but, I poke bears. Um, I don’t respect no one til’ they come and give me 40. Um, so, um I pride myself on, you know, what I do is defense and taking on any challenge that’s on the board [audio cuts].
In the reporter’s question, they allude to an exchange between Dillon Brooks and LeBron James when the Lakers were going on a run to cut the Memphis Grizzlies' lead down to 14. The reporter indexes this particular exchange– “that exchange” –by contextualizing it with the run the Lakers went on to cut the lead. The exchange in question was inaudible, but what was visible was the body language, namely the gesticulation of Dillon Brooks and LeBron James presumably symbolizing a tense exchange: marked by Dillon Brooks clapping and yelling in LeBron’s face while LeBron shares words with him.5 The reporter then goes on to use a case of reported speech, pointing to a stance one might hypothetically take about such an exchange. The voice the reporter mobilizes is “people out there”. “Out there” indexing a vague Other that the reporter positions themselves as distinct from. The stance claims that the behavior of Dillon Brooks seemingly goes against an unspoken code of respect and deference. This code states that one shouldn’t partake in such tense exchanges with players understood to be “one of the better players in the game”. The player in question is LeBron James, popularly and institutionally hailed as one of the best NBA players of all time.6 This hailing comes with individual accolades: 19-time NBA All-star, 19-time All-NBA selection, 4-time NBA MVP, 4-time NBA Champion and Finals MVP, and NBA All-time scoring leader to name a few. These awards are voted on by institutionally recognized journalists, General Managers, Coaches, and fans. Dillon Brooks, on the other hand, has received one such accolade in his NBA Career: 1-time NBA All-Defensive Selection. LeBron has been selected 6 times for such distinction.
In Dillon Brooks’ response, he shows a rejection of this code of respect. Brooks immediately points to LeBron’s age as a counter to such claims he should show a certain level of deference to LeBron. “I don’t care, he’s old”. He further says, “I poke bears”, a common saying in English “to intentionally make or try to make someone angry or offended, especially someone more powerful than you”.7 Brooks’ comments speak to his rejection of deference to perceived greater players. Dillon Brooks claims that part of his identity is attached to poking such bears. His identity is also tied to his defense, and claims that he doesn’t show any respect for anyone “til’ they come and give me 40.” Give me 40, referencing 40 points–Brooks claims he won’t respect LeBron until he scores 40 points on him, as he prides himself on his defensive ability.
This event between Dillon Brooks and the reporter was published on YouTube by the media channel Bleacher Report and titled, “Dillon Brooks on LeBron Trash Talk: "I Don't Care, He's Old"😳 ”. The title recontextualizes the conversation between Dillon Brooks and the reporter to signal what content users on the platform might find in the video. The channel picks out a snippet of text from Brooks’ response and positions it as a response to “LeBron Trash Talk”, providing further information to the reporter’s questioning of Brooks. As a player that isn’t seen as one of the better players in the league, one shouldn’t “Trash Talk” with a player seen as one of the better players in the league. The emoji placed next to the reported speech of Brooks in the title also points to a certain shock at the response given. This shock indexes a break in code; a break from the normal functioning of player relations which produces a certain shock value for onlookers of the game. The comments and threads on this video give us an idea of the perlocutionary effects of the interaction framed in the video and the implicit cultural code presented by the reporter:
Sean Powell: I kinda like him this the energy we need in this soft ass generation
😂
Bingly Binger (re: Sean Powell): I don't mind it but at least back it up, he's theworst player on that team that gets minutes.
QuEsT X: This man doesn't care about nobody's feelings. God, I love it .... the nba has been missing this type of villainous persona... the man is pulling some old wwf heel type stuff and it's working he I'm everybody's head
😅😅😅BuddhaMaster (re: QuEsT X): Dillon Brooks playing up the villain persona because he knows us little idiots will cheer him on and give him the attention he craves. That's the only reason he's doing it, and look it's working because we're all talking about him even though he ain't done shit in his career. I wonder if he's seeing all the little baddies chasing after Ja Morant and thinking to himself "I wanna be a bad boy too." I'm willing to bet that's what it is. And look at all us idiots lapping it up like hungry baby birds.9
In taking just a few of the comments from the video, we can see a few of the perlocutionary effects the video produced. Sean Powell and QuEsT X both show an appreciation for Brooks’ behavior through his rejection of deference to LeBron during the game. Sean Powell makes direct reference to a “soft ass generation”, making an implicit claim of a prior “generation” of players, people, or perhaps NBA fans that exhibited the type of “energy” Brooks displays. This ostensible generational shift has been marked by previous players and popular sports media platforms (Wong, 2023; London, 2017). Bingly Binger responds by also stating their indifference to Brooks’ behavior, but conditionally requires that such behavior be “backed up”. For Bingly Binger, the in-game performance of Brooks doesn’t allow him to gesticulate in such a way. To show disrespect to another player, one must be 1.) better or equal, and 2.) back up their disrespect with in-game performance. Masculinity arguably serves as an undercurrent in the statements between Sean Powell and Bingly Binger as well. The idea of “softness” as opposed to “hardness” might be pointing to generational projections of proper masculine presentation.
The thread between QuEsT X and BuddhaMaster continues fans’ negotiation around Brooks’ actions, while also bringing us more explicitly into discourse on masculinity. QuEsT X also shows admiration for Brooks’ actions, and feels that “the nba has been missing this type of villainous persona”. What’s interesting about this particular statement is that QuEsT X is the situatedness of the “villainous persona” in the NBA. There is a presumed lack of a “villain”, which in the same comment gets connected to the figure of the heel in the WWF. The WWF refers to the World Wrestling Federation, now referred to as the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), which was forced to change its name in the early 2000s after a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) (Raghuwanshi, 2021). The “heel” is a popular folk term in professional wrestling to categorize any wrestler seen as the “bad guy” or a rulebreaker.10 The heel is also seen as playing a somewhat necessary role in the production of the “storylines” in professional wrestling–the connection this comment makes between the NBA and the WWF makes explicit a claim on professional sports, namely the NBA, as spectacle. This mapping of Brooks’ persona as an “old wwf” also contributes to a notion of a generational shift in masculinity or cultural norms in the NBA. I argue this on the basis that the comment points specifically to the WWF, which aired on television in the 1980s and 90s. This is further symbolized through the labeling of the“old” WWF.
This point is understood by BuddhaMaster, and they continue to confirm the idea of the villainous persona as “played up” by Brooks. Both BuddhaMaster and QuEsT X make note of a perceived performance of Brooks’ behavior, possibly indexing a lack of authenticity. This point comes across more clearly in the remarks of BuddhaMaster, stating that Brooks’ end goal is “attention” which “he craves”, conceding to the fact that “it’s working”. This user is “willing to bet” that this attention craving comes from a desire to “be a bad boy”, as a response to his teammate, Ja Morant, getting the attention of “all the little baddies”. Without getting into too many specifics, Ja Morant is another NBA player who has been popularly and institutionally hailed as one of the league’s better players. Morant has also come into the headlines recently for receiving a league-mandated suspension after appearing on Instagram Live, a live-streaming feature on the Instagram social media platform, flashing a gun in the camera. Behavior deemed ‘detrimental to the league’ (CNN, 2023). This behavior has given Morant a ‘bad boy’ persona, a signification which the Memphis Grizzlies team as a whole has come wear in the past few years (Samaha, 2023; Gee, 2023). Andrew Lawrence (2023), in an article tracing the lineage of such ‘bad boy’ behavior, further refers to “[T]he open hostility and bitterness that defined those bygone eras” which the Grizzlies seem to have resuscitated. Moving back to BuddahMaster’s claim, Morant’s acclaim along with his persona is what has assumably gained him the attention and affection of his gendered counterparts. This attention and affection is something Dillon Brooks wants as well, but without having the same sort of acclaim. For this reason, he attempts to gain attention and recognition through his “bad boy” persona–so the argument goes. Through this comment, we might conclude that the commenter may view the actions of Brooks as an inauthentic performance of a type of ‘bad boy’ masculinity aimed at receiving women’s attention.
Whether we agree or disagree with the perceived inauthenticity of Brooks’ actions isn’t primarily the focus. What we can say, however, is that the initial on-the-court actions of Brooks have become recontextualized and semiotically marked within a larger discursive field of masculinity and respectability within the NBA. This semiotic marking is important to understand how fans and players alike use sports as a site of performance and negotiation of identity.
Concluding Remarks
Returning to the opening question of the essay, is sports media really just men’s reality tv? It’s unclear, but perhaps getting caught up on this comparison misses the point. This interrogation was principally catalyzed by my initial reflection on a conversation between my partner and me when I rejected the notion of sports as akin to reality tv as I defined it. In this deconstruction, I’ve argued that the presumed distinctions made between reality television and televised sports were lesser than we may initially assume. Admittedly, one anthropologically savvy sports writer beat me to such a framing by over a decade. In this brief reflection on the narrativization of sports beyond the game as the “event”, we come to see how implicated the game itself is by off-court happenings.
The cultural codes that dictate the way the game “ought” to be played are implicitly tied to negotiations by fans and players alike. In this detailed example, I argue that these negotiations most notably point to generational tensions around masculine identity and performance. We might quickly theorize about the mediated messages of masculinity and performance that aspiring NBA hopefuls may consume, and how these messages produce visions and further enactments of masculine performance on and off the court.
This orientation towards narrative in sports helps us to both analytically and methodologically locate the layers of contextualization that come to be produced for a reading of in-game action. These “layers of contextualization” assist us in making sense of fandom culture, celebrity, and spectacle in sports media. Future research might provide more detailed discourse analysis to make stronger claims about the prevalence of generational negotiations of masculinity amongst NBA fans and players. A dedicated positioning within a particular fanbase might help us to make sense of the unique contextualizations fans of a certain team rely on and how in-group identity becomes established. Or perhaps a focus on the production cultures of sports media organizations directs us to the ideological constructions of race, gender, national identity, and class that become mobilized through the entextualized and circulable media forms.
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