Abstract
The predominant narrative on the history of basketball assumes that James Naismith ‘invented’ the game in 1891. This narrative argues the game emerged as a modern sport different in design and significance from pre-existing, ‘pre-modern’ ballgames. Naismith is now generally accepted as the singular ‘inventor’ of modern basketball. This essay introduces the ‘transtemporal history’ in conversation with postcolonial and decolonial theory as a framework for critiquing the notion of ‘inventions’ in sport history. A transtemporal framework, informed by French historian Fernand Braudel’s concept of the ‘longue durée’, highlights the episodic expression of contested, yet enduring ideas across a long time span, serving to destabilize the temporal dichotomies of Western modernity that essentialize the nature and meaning of ‘pre-modern’ games. The essay outlines the transtemporal history and explores its potential utility by critiquing the notion that basketball was ‘invented’ by a singular subject in the global history of organized ballgames.
Published Version
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