Myths, Heroes, and Hoop Dreams

For Paul

Photo by Tom Briskey on Unsplash

There are many ways to approach mythology, the Homeric epics, and other classic heroic texts. Believe it or not, basketball is one of them.

Some years ago, my friend Paul shared that he was reading The Book of Basketball by Bill Simons. It was one of those conversations that begins with “What are you reading?” and in the spirit of abundant curiosity, I bought a copy.

I didn’t just like it. I laughed out loud in many places. I was intrigued even though I didn’t always understand the commentary about plays and throws and points. I knew some of the names – Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaq, Kobe, and Hakeem the Dream. I had heard of the Dream Team, but frankly thought that was a generic term for great players. And that was about the extent of my basketball knowledge.

Well, stranger things have happened. I enjoyed myself. There was something about it that felt familiar. At the time, I hadn’t made the connection, but recently I was looking for a reference in the text and began reminiscing and reviewing all of my highlights. And then it hit me right out of left field (oh sorry, wrong sport).

Bill Simmons didn’t write a book about basketball.

He wrote about heroes. Now that’s a topic I know quite a bit about, and it made me think of Homer, of course, and Joseph Campbell.

One of Campbells’ great achievements, and there are many, was his articulation of the hero’s journey. A pattern. A cycle. And a narrative structure that applies to many, many stories across cultures and time periods. The parallel was interesting and yet Simmons did not use the language and the milestones put forth by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces: the call, the refusal, the mentor, the descent, or the return, and so on.

Heroes are not born complete, so to speak. They must go through trials and suffering and be reborn into their greatness. Think of Achilles losing Patroclus, or Odysseus wandering for a decade.

Simmons gives us Michael Jordan.

I know enough about Michael Jordan to know he’s a ‘great,’ if not the greatest basketball player ever. I know Air Jordans. I know his smile. I know his silhouette. And that’s about it.

But you don’t have to know the particular of myths to understand them. You need to understand mythical structure.

Simmons book, to paraphrase the author, is about sifting through all of the stories and figuring out which ones are myths, which ones endure, which myths live on, who the greats are, were, and always will be.

Simmons lays out the story of Michael Jordan. It’s not just a highlight reel, it’s a narrative. Jordan’s excellence from the early days is not enough. He is talented and competitive and persistent if not relentless. And yet he still fails. He meets rivals who defeat him. Teams block him. Obstacles are limits that he can’t seem to overcome.

From a mythological perspective, this is part of the journey. A hero who succeeds too quickly is not a hero. The story requires trials, resistance, suffering – enough to cause change, to force a transformation.

MJ, as he is fondly referred, descends. The losses to rivals are humiliating. They are exhausting. They helped shape him. He learned from them. They gave form to his struggle.

And then, he comes back. He emerges better, different, sharpened, mythic. Campbell would recognize this immediately. The hero who returns is never the same one who set out.

Simmons understands that shining a light on the rivals illuminates what the hero lacks and needs. And that is why he talks quite a bit about defeat. The losses keep the story alive and riveting and meaningful.

Endurance has a lot to do with it. Once again, think of Odysseus.

To be comprehensive, Simmons also touches on the players and the journeys that did not cycle through to transformation. From a literary perspective, these are tragedies.

I don’t know enough about all of the players, but their stories are fascinating, and one can’t understand the heroes without understanding these other players.

The way Simmons treats legacy is also quite interesting. To him, achievement alone is not enough. A shadow gets left behind. A standard. A measure. Look at Michael Jordan. Think of Achilles.

Legacies, like myths, are everlasting. They are revised, to some degree, with each retelling. Sometimes they are debated. Sometimes they are defended. But we keep telling the stories.

I did enjoy The Book of Basketball even though I still don’t know much about the game. I never watch it or keep up with the stats, and I likely never will. But going back through the book in my recent search reminded me about myths and how they form around us even when we don’t realize it (myths aren’t myths at the time of their making, after all). Sports is the perfect arena for this (no pun intended). And I find that I have become a fan.