Professional basketball, the ‘hardship case’ and the ‘culture of poverty’: The social construction of black basketball players from Spencer Haywood to Moses Malone, 1969–1974

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F19194951%3A_____%2F24%3AN0000023" target="_blank" >RIV/19194951:_____/24:N0000023 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523367.2025.2451857" target="_blank" >https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523367.2025.2451857</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2025.2451857" target="_blank" >10.1080/09523367.2025.2451857</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Professional basketball, the ‘hardship case’ and the ‘culture of poverty’: The social construction of black basketball players from Spencer Haywood to Moses Malone, 1969–1974

Original language description

Between 1969 and 1974, a group of Black basketball players from Spencer Haywood to Moses Malone disrupted the protocol of professional and college basketball labour policy, regulations, and behavioral norms by opting out of the previously obligatory four years of collegiate competition to turn pro. The rhetorical construct adopted by the professional basketball leagues to publicly address this labour disruption was the 'hardship case'. This article argues that the discussion of 'hardship', as it became reified throughout White sports journalism, adapted the sociological, anthropological, and political language of breadwinner liberalism and the 'culture of poverty' to the domains of sports and popular culture. As the more progressive 1960s transitioned into the 1970s, the 'culture of poverty' lost its tethering to liberal ideals and became a discursive framework for White, conservative—or neoconservative—reaction. Utilizing Stuart Hall's notion of Black popular culture as a contested space, this article shows how professional basketball became an important cultural location for 'strategic confrontations' over the meaning of the Black athlete in the late 1960s and 1970s. Professional Black basketball players, this article argues, became complex discursive signifiers that reflected White anxieties and fantasies in an era of economic recession, cultural divisive, and grievance-driven identity politics.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

60101 - History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)

Project

—

Continuities

N - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z neverejnych zdroju

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

International Journal of the History of Sport

ISSN

0952-3367

e-ISSN

1743-9035

Volume of the periodical

41

Issue of the periodical within the volume

14

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

18

Pages from-to

1591-1608

UT code for WoS article

001411220600001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105016176097