#29: How Basketball Can Save The World ft. Professor David Hollander
A conversation with David Hollander, an associate dean and professor at New York University who teaches the popular course, “How Basketball Can Save The World.”
J.D. Crabtree: Dear readers,
Welcome back to the another edition amongst an overactive basketball season. And while there are many topics ranging from the awkward Western Conference standings or a 7'4 Center dominating college basketball, I've got something a little more unique for you readers to digest.
I'm being joined by Professor David Hollander of New York University, where he teaches a popular course titled HOW BASKETBALL CAN SAVE THE WORLD.
The title alone is beautiful and deserves a full timeout.
Professor Hollander, before our give-and-go, do you mind first sharing with the class your teaching journey, what the course has evolved into, and a very important piece of literature that is being released this February?
David Hollander: The course probably started forming in my head the moment I picked a basketball at six years old. But in 2016, I seriously started thinking about how basketball can save the world, as a college course, because I knew the world could not continue recycling the same kinds of world views coming from the same kinds of leaders delivering us to the same but progressively worse kind of points of global conflict and confusion. And I knew that for me and so many of us basketball provided a place of peace, balance, and right relations with others.
The work of a professor is to build a syllabus based on research on a thesis of exploration. I did my work. The mere announcement of the course drew major national media attention: an AP story picked up in over 60 major outlets, an interview segment on CBS News, a feature in SLAM.
The course grew from a summer pilot of 28 students from 5 different degree programs plus a kid from Tulane who "just had to be there," to 135 plus spanning students from almost every undergraduate school across NYU.
The NY Times wrote a 1,500 word feature on us and we've been blessed to host award-winning filmmakers, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, leaders of first Nations, playground legends, a global pre-eminent mezzo-soprano plus some of the greatest names in basketball including Sue Bird, Dr. J, CJ McCollum, Tamika Catchings, George "Iceman" Gervin and the list goes on.
This year, the textbook for the class will be me making my case, released February 2023:
HOW BASKETBALL CAN SAVE THE WORLD: 13 Principles for Reimagining What's Possible, Harmony/Penguin Random House. (February 2023)
JD: It's truly a stacked roster, and I love to see the class keep hanging banners.
That's an interesting point on disrupting the status quo of world views, especially from the academic perspective when there are a lot of voices in the room on how to educate a younger mind. One of my favorite things to do in these conversations is to dive deep into the origin of a concept or a backstory. Let's go back to the creation phase, when you were modeling out this novel course.
You had the feeling, you know, the internal force that was pushing you into this venture. But were there any doubts? Were you ever concerned that it sounded magical on paper, to then be difficult to pull off in a live classroom setting?
DH: I don't want to sound immodest or presumptuous, but I had no doubt that this course would be huge -- that it would powerfully resonate with students.
Why? Because for years I have been teaching against type, against convention. Because students are ready for what's next, for a new way. They have seen (powerfully so in the pandemic) the world's across-the-board institutional failures again and again. They are tired of the same recycled ideologies -- capitalism, socialism, communism, nationalism, isolationism, authoritarianism, utilitarianism, theism -- emanating from the same types of leaders -- monarchs, generals, economists, lawyers, politicians, captains of industry -- which over millennia have only gotten us into progressively worse but repeated versions of the same confusion and conflict, which is where we find ourselves now yet again.
Young people (all people, really) want new language, new sources of ideas, leadership, problem solving. This course presents a new way to solve 21st Century problems, to live a 21st Century life with meaning, fairness, balance, efficiency, abundance, and peace. And that new way, that new set of organizing principles is delivered through basketball: a social currency that while nations have formed and reforms, borders have been redrawn, business have formed and dissolved, trends have come and gone, generations have lived and died remains a thing over 130 years than has continued to expand in ubiquity and influence.
Yeah, I knew it would work. It always has. Basketball presents an undeniable proof of concept.
JD: You, presumptuous? O come on.
Yes, I think your course came at a fascinating time in ideology's history. You summarized it with this statement: which over millennia have only gotten us into progressively worse but repeated versions of the same confusion and conflict, which is where we find ourselves now yet again
I don't have the power or credentials to claim this, but I'll try: we are exhausted by grand structural promises in 2023. It's a wild mix of a global pandemic and new wave of technology innovation/frustration that got us here...but it's here.
The common person trying to achieve common outcomes in common environments is difficult. As you stated basketball has mostly been a neutral fair playground for the world. Everything else has had a shot at saving it, why not basketball this time?
Alright before I take it too far in a direction, I want to bring it back to course enlightenments. Could you share a few of the unexpected findings or positive happenings that came from your students? Did any of the students take this course and run with it in a way you didn't predict?
DH: Last year, as a class, we did not plan to permanently alter the Catholic Church, but we did.
Long story short: my class and I composed a letter in support of a talled petition put forward by Porretta Terme, a small mountain village in central Italy, to the Pope to have Poretta's local Madonna del Ponte, visage has graced bridge connecting the village to 15th Century church that has inside it the "Shine of Basketball." Our collectively composed letter to the Vatican -- signed by me and 157 students -- became a national story when it was published in full along with a feature story in la Repubblica -- a major national daily outlet -- saying "this professor and his NYU students are the first international gesture of support for this stalled petition, and coudl very will tip the scales!"
That March 2022. On Good Friday April 12, 2022, the Pope recognized the Madonna del Ponte of Porretta Terme as the Patroness Saint of Basketball -- the first team sport ever to get its own Saint. Incredible true story.
Individually, students have researched papers exploring everything from the primacy of their local "Dollar Store" and the basketball principle of access to basketball as a space of belonging for displaced Albanians.
Two years ago, one of my students made a short film about women and basketball which FIBA broadcast on their site contemporaneous with the Summer Olympics.
JD: Fascinating what an energized group can do when you introduce real-world practicality. It almost feels like you are creating a basketball incubator through higher ed.
These students, do they all have a deep basketball background? Are they coming for the sports aspect? Business? All the above?
And a follow-up question is how much have you witnessed non-basketball folks that "start to get it"? Are people understanding the point of your work, that it's not just a game you should ignore because one you're not into sports?
DH: I have students that come from almost every single program and undergraduate school at NYU. we could dance majors, Real estate management, education majors, The The hospitality and tourism program, economics majors, sports business majors, students from our global studies program, our individualized studies program, Fashion, filmmaking, drama, Language studies, applied psychology, the list goes on.
And yes, we not only get athletes from the varsity men and women’s basketball team, per from other varsity sports too.
They come because the title of the course is such a provocation. And they are like “Oh yeah? Prove it.” Of course others come because they love basketball and they say to them selves “I think I know exactly what he’s going to say because I’ve always felt it and I’m excited to have sa forum to articulate it.” But many, and they should give everyone a never ending faith in young people, I certainly have it, many come with a genuine hunger and desire to truly honestly profoundly save the world. And they are not afraid to look at basketball or any other source of new ideas to make that happen.
JD: Is the final exam playing you 1-on-1? Would everyone pass or fail in that scenario?
Regardless, you have introduced a radical way to mesh a universal sport with a universe that has a long history of issues. As a society we have to keep throwing shots up until we find the right rhythm or discover the new plays that progress us a bit more in the right direction.
Alright Professor, the shot clock is winding down on this conversation. But I couldn't be more excited to join you in about a month for a live version of this. You know how I feel, basketball will save the world if we let it.
Do you have any final words or brilliance you want to share before signing off?
DH: Basketball, in a very special and compelling way, is about air. It's about weightlessness and defying gravity. When the game is played in the air, we get excited. We see what we may be capable of as a human race. How high can we fly? How long can we stay weightless? We know we can't fly. We know gravity is part of our earthly condition. "Ah but a man's reach should exceed his grasp / Or what's a heaven for?" (Robert Browning, "Andrea del Sarto").
Every great society must believe there is something greater to be and do that only what's in front of it's face. We must fly. Or, we must dream to fly. That dream is a basketball dream. Yes, we know gravity is part of our earthly condition. Yet we must jump in order to fly. It is high time for us to jump.
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One final reminder that Professor Hollander's book is new, now out, and ready to be consumed. Here's a variety of places to get yours:
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