the laws of basketball

Last night I went to a basketball game. No, it wasn’t the Knicks, or even the Nets. It was Columbia Law School vs. NYU Law. A very specific crowd, and of course I was on the NYU side since those are the people I know.

There was an interesting dynamic on the teams. Apparently they are required to have at least one woman on the court at all times, and both teams did exactly that. Women were only substituted for other women. They guarded the other team’s one woman. This happened even in the mini-game between the professors at halftime. The women served mostly as a point to pass the ball to while the “star” maneuvered himself into a better position, though an NYU girl did make a free throw. And I don’t think it was that the women were worse players, they were just seen as a requirement. I’m sure there was quite a bit of camaraderie between the players, but during the actual game it was a boy’s club.*

Another thing I noticed is that there were very few black players on either team. There were more blacks then women, and there were even a few black women. But mostly the teams consisted of Jewish men. (These are 2 law schools in NYC – I’d be surprised if there weren’t any Jewish players.) But I did notice that the black players handled the ball more. When there was a fast break, the ball was always passed to a black player to utilize his skillz. It made me feel that the teams approached any black future lawyers and said “You’re black. You play basketball right? Do you want to be on the team?” But of course, a black law student that I know was not on the team, so either they didn’t get to him or he said no.

It was a good game, race and gender issues aside. It’s mostly just fun to be there for the competition between rival schools. They kept yelling things like “safety school” and “overrated” at each other, which cracks me up because remember, these are law schools, not basketball schools. Even if you don’t care a lick about sports, like me, it’s still fun to yell whenever something happens. White team makes a basket? Cheer. Blue team makes one? Boo. White team keeps fouling out? Cheer because the blue team obviously isn’t being aggressive enough.

I had fun. I was out til about midnight, when I had to come home and donate to the KDVS fundraiser. I tried to listen to Megan’s show, but the broadcast wasn’t working over the internet. I’m tired today, but it was worth it because as motto #4 goes, it’s better to go out and have fun and be tired than stay in, bored and well rested.

Oh, and NYU won by 3 points.

* There was a giant banner hanging in the NYU gym that proclaimed the NYU women’s basketball team the NCAA champions of some year, so you would think they would at least put some stock in the girls. However, that is for the undergrad school and not for the law school.