The Secret Code of Pickup Basketball

The game presents a social problem: How does one find comity among a group of jostling strangers?

The camaraderie of pickup basketball

I’ve been an intermittent part of these games for most of my adult life without ever really thinking through what they represent, or how they come together. One aspect of the paradox of pickup basketball is its invisibility to those who play.

The sociologist Jason Jimerson conducted the first participant-observer study of pickup basketball, in the 1990s. He was inspired by a pair of writers who had traveled across the United States in search of the country’s best games. As a master’s student at the University of Virginia, Jimerson played every week at a gym near campus. He later published a paper describing how players maximized time on the court and quality of play.

“Basketball started at the Y,” Jimerson told me. This one was right next to a courthouse. A judge and probation officer would sometimes play with someone who had recently been imprisoned.

A YMCA gym, where pickup basketball games often take place

The larger social order is most endangered during competitive games. Disputes may begin when players disagree about the score, or whether someone traveled or stepped out of bounds, but most happen when people argue about fouls. In pickup basketball, individual players must announce when they’ve been smacked, shoved, or otherwise touched inappropriately.

“The whole point of pickup basketball is to keep the game moving,” Jimerson said.

Disputes on the court

Such norms are standard in pickup basketball, but any player can tell you that they’re sometimes broken. Michael DeLand, a sociologist at Gonzaga University, told me that he observed extended disputes while playing in a long-running pickup game in Santa Monica.

“There were Orthodox Jewish guys playing with businessmen, bartenders, bouncer types, rappers, and actors,” DeLand said.

The Santa Monica Pier, where pickup basketball games are often played

Rogers also studied disputes at the state-school gym where he played. He noticed upper limits to the intensity of verbal disagreement. Players were hesitant to use the sort of homophobic or misogynistic slurs that are common in, say, an online game of Call of Duty, because they would prolong the argument and make violence more likely.

“Ball don’t lie,” Rogers told me.

The basketball hoop, where disputes are settled

Jimerson told me that he thinks of basketball as “a third place,” apart from home and work. In a third place, the usual social hierarchies are suppressed. People feel comfortable being themselves around strangers, and relating to others.

“Old guys have a different understanding of the game,” he told me. They know how to use back cuts and how to pass. They get into fewer disputes.

Older players, who have mastered the game

The luckiest ones stay healthy long enough to play pickup with their adult kids.

A family playing basketball together

Injuries give players a taste of dreaded, but inevitable, retirement. For the past few months, a friend I play with in a different game has been healing from a torn calf muscle. His doctor has barred him from the hardwood.

“I love watching these grown-ass men limping around, giving every ounce of their energy to try to win,” he told me.

A player recovering from an injury

On many holidays, he drops a message of gratitude into our WhatsApp group. He thanks us for the many blessings of the game and the microcommunity it has created. He talks about how much he cherishes it.

“I count myself lucky to have had a spot in one (or more) for nearly all of my adult life, and plan to keep it that way for as long as possible,” I said.

A pickup basketball team