“Whatever remedy you have to save the world, it must be accessible or it cannot work,” Hollander said. “It cannot be elitist. James Naismith did not want basketball to be a country club sport or a hyper-commercialized sport. He didn’t even want coaches. He wanted it to be a sanctuary for the outsider.”

In 2020, Hollander saw parallels to the chaotic era when Naismith invented basketball in 1891 amid the Gilded Age. He did not foresee the pandemic, which forced him to adjust quickly.

He had his class watch a short film on Magic Johnson and his impact on the public’s understanding of the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s. He spoke about race and culture, agency and ownership, showing the students “High Flying Bird,” a movie about an agent negotiating his way through a professional basketball lockout. He cued up songs like Kurtis Blow’s “Basketball” to demonstrate the sport’s cultural impact.

The guest list included Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman and the N.B.A. deputy commissioner Mark Tatum. The former Nike marketing executive Mark Thomashow helped guide an exploration of culture and commerce, as well as the grift and graft of the sport’s grass-roots scene. Walt Frazier, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and a Knicks broadcaster, appeared via Zoom, welcoming the opportunity to engage with others while Manhattan was locked down.

“I haven’t gone out in five weeks!” Frazier said when he appeared. “I had to spiff myself up for class.”

One guest was fresh off serving 90 days in federal prison: Emanuel Richardson, the former University of Arizona assistant coach who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery during a prospect’s recruitment. After a discussion about the merits of amateurism and the role of Black assistant coaches in college recruiting, one student asked him about his relationship with basketball after incarceration.

“Did I fall out of love with it? Yes,” Richardson said. “I hated basketball, but it wasn’t basketball. It was people. Because basketball is still pure. Basketball is still one of the sweetest joys.”

Source: New York Times

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