“Let Go of Your Ball, This Is Not the NBA!”: The Influence of Hip-Hop Ball on Institutional Basketball Around Paris (France): Cultural Antagonisms and Difficult Cohabitation

Abstract

The nature of the game of basketball, which is to score more hoops than the opposing team while respecting a set of rules, has often been questionned. Young players have been developing new ways to play and think basketball ever since the advent of the American hip-hop basketball (“hip-hop ball”) culture in France in the noughties. However, this way of playing basketball is viewed negatively by club coaches, who are the guardians of institutional basketball. Through participant observation and the interviewing of five coaches and 32 players, this article seeks to measure the consequences of what may be seen as a cultural divide. Our findings show how coaches depreciate hip-hop ball culture and sometimes stigmatize players to reinforce their own legitimacy within institutional basketball. Also, our data illustrate the players’ ability to shift from one basketball culture to the next in an attempt to gain recognition in institutional basketball.