Sports as Art: Boxing

Boxing is poetry,
it can be as short as a round,
as long as an epic.

The studied fighter
enters the ring,
a problem to tackle.

Each jab a calculated word,
meant to prod.
Hesitations, investigations,
searching, slow unearthing.

A combination like a stanza,
each punch a different line,
body shots, haymakers, upper cuts,
missing, landing, missing, landing.
One gets past your conscious enclosure,
knocks you down,
knocks you out.

An intellectual discovery;
bashed to a bloody pulp.

Sports as Art: Basketball

 

Basketball games are novels.  Basketball is a game of stars and match-ups.  The game is divided into four chapters; throughout, the principle characters (usually two) collide and a theme develops within this conflict.  The theme can be a triumphant Michael Jordan beating the odds and making three-pointer after three-pointer in the face of a shocked Clyde Drexler, who had given Jordan the open looks based on his history of missing those shots.  Or it can be a cunning innocent prisoner’s redemptive escape from a maximum security prison in the face of his nemesis, the sadistic head guard.

Besides the two (or more) main characters, there is the supporting cast, and the possibility that one may steal the show.  But generally, they simply help the main character achieve his or her aims in the face of the obstacles presented (mainly, the other main character on the opposing team).

The climax is the consummation of the theme, and the better the game (or novel) the later the climax.  Great novels leave the climax to the last line, just as great games leave them to the last second.  Ideally, Michael Jordan would hit a game winning three-pointer over Clyde Drexler to drive the point home, and after noticing the prisoner missing there would be a grand reveal of the entire escape plot (and maybe some discovery pointing to his innocence all along).  Terrible novels resolve everything in the first chapter, and then just drag on.  Of course, there is always the possibility for a twist; the game was not truly resolved in the first quarter, maybe there will be a comeback.  Then again, how unsatisfying to read through a whole book hoping for a twist that never comes!

Sports as Art: Football

 

Football (soccer) games are jazz music.  The structure of each team’s play provides the background for the constant improvisation of the players.  The jazz musician looks for an opening in the composition, where he will be able to toy with the arrangement, where he can poke holes in the structure, where he can play faster than the established beat or play notes that don’t belong in the composition (or sometimes don’t even belong in the structure of the musical key).  He breaks the rules, because breaking the rules is fun, different, uncertain, and emotionally expressive.

Football players are given a position and a task, and spend most of the game adhering to its principles.  They touch the ball once or twice and pass it on to another player, who then proceeds to do the same.  The team patiently waits for the opportunity to arise when a great player will receive the ball and suddenly start his solo.  As he solos he leaves his position, holds the ball for longer than dictated by his task, and just has fun zooming past players and placing the ball behind the net.  The team stands behind him, comping along as the player improvises.