What's your basketball shoe?

Topic: The cultural change of basketball shoes throughout the years

Relevance: We are studying cultural changes of different cultures in our textbook.

Source: From the NBA all-star game on Sunday February 26, 2012.

Description: Today was the NBA all-star game. I watch this game every year because it’s fun to watch all the best players in the league compete and play on the same team. But this year I noticed something different as I was watching the game. I saw these new shoes and different kinds of new shoes on every player. Some were wearing the same kind, while others were wearing their own shoes that they made. Like Kobe Bryant wearing his own shoes he designed; Dwane Wade wearing his own shoes he designed; Lebron James wearing his own shoes he designed. This got me thinking about what the old players used to wear back when basketball became really popular. During the seventies and eighties the players wore converse. Virtually all of them did, whereas now, virtually no one does. From the nineties on people became fonder of Michael Jordan’s brand of shoe line called Jordans. While Jordans are still very popular today, players are now wearing Nikes, Adidas, and other NBA player’s shoes; most of these players are still playing.

Comment/Analysis: What influenced this culture shift from almost all players wearing the same Converse shoe, to wearing all different kinds of shoes? While watching the all-star game, I noticed no difference in play between players and the different kinds of shoes they were wearing. And it’s not like players now-a-days are playing extremely better with these diverse shoes, than the older players who used to all play with the same shoe. So why change? I came to the conclusion that players in today’s league are more about money and what their image is than players in the older era. Shoe investments are worth so much more now than then. So players are necessarily making shoes because it make their play better, but because millions of people will buy their product and will help the already rich NBA player become even more rich. This was started with Michael Jordan when he first came out with his shoe line which still exists today. But once he came out with a shoe, everyone else wanted to come out with their own. Over the years the different pairs of shoes became more and more popular until there were so many shoes, and it seemed like no one was wearing the same pairs anymore. Even MJ stated he wore a new pair of Jordans every game.

Football: A Way of Life

Topic: Cultural Text-American Football

Source: My sophomore year in high school and my first year on the varsity football team. This was in fall of 2008.

Relation: In the textbook, Cultural Anthro, it discusses the meaning people in certain societies give to games; like American Football in the United States, and the Cockfights in Balinese.

Description: My first year playing varsity high school football was a little different than I thought it was going to be. The head coach was Coach Nova, and he had been a head coach for a handful of years and was very successful at it. He won three straight league championships and went to the playoffs three straight times. So when he asked me to move up from the junior varsity squad to play for his varsity team, I was more than happy. I learned so many things to help me become a better football player through him coaching me and through going to practice every day. To show up earlier than early to practice; to respond to your coaches as coach Nova or coach Rook; to never give up on a play, even if it’s not what you called in the huddle; to not quit the team, even if you didn’t like the team or the coaches; to never quit on yourself, no matter how tough the circumstances are; to trust in your teammate next to you to do his job; to play every play like it’s your last; to always play with your heart and go have fun. These were special details to the game of football that I never really thought to do. They helped me through some very tough times that year. Like when I switched positions in the middle of the season. I had to learn a whole new style of play which was very difficult. I also suffered a torn tendon in my oblique which only made things worse. Trying to impress my coach, playing a new position, and playing with a torn oblique tendon were some of the most difficult tasks I had ever had to do, but with the support of Coach Nova, and his simple little sayings, I was able to get through it.

Commentary/Analysis: In the textbook, Robbins talks about how Americans see American football closely related to war. Well this is true to a certain extent. As a player we also see football as a war. Every game is a battle and the whole season is the war. I also see the game of football as a way of life. Whenever Coach Nova had talked to us he was always trying to connect football to real life. Everything stated above has meaning to football, but more importantly meaning to life. In real life you always want to be early to class, work, and possibly job interviews. In football, calling a coach, coach, really goes a long way, just like whenever you talk to someone, you should hold them to a higher respect by calling them sir or mam. Being flexible in football is just as important as being flexible in your daily schedule. Life will throw some pretty crazy things your way and most of the time it’s not what you prepared for. Just like when a play goes wrong in a game. You still have to figure out what to do next, just like life. My coach always told us never to quit, even the smallest things in life. If you quit one time, you’ll always be a quitter. Trust is a huge factor in our everyday lives just like in football. To trust your teammate is like to trust your spouse to be faithful, or to trust your co-worker to get part of the job done. In football you have to go hard every play. In life you have to do the best you can at everything in order to be successful. Maybe the most important aspect of the game is to have fun. Well in life that’s what we’re always trying to accomplish; to have a fun time. So from observing football as a spectator or fan, they could say it’s about war and about marketing. But from a participant observing football, I can say it’s more about a way of life for the future.