MyBasketball

Photo credit: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

I wrote this piece on the eve of the Beijing Olympics.  The USA re-established their dominance as world leaders in basketball as both women and men’s teams won the ultimate athletic achievement, Olympic gold.  Asides from Mali’s butter fingered opposition to Lisa Leslie’s team USA in the women’s preliminaries, one of the most striking features of the competition were the unitards worn by team Australia.  How could any self-respecting women step out onto a basketball court with a wedgie??  After all basketball is one of those sports tied undeniably to the sub-culture of music, language, and clothing that marks the sport as an urban cultural phenomenon.  In South Africa we are no different in our expression of this sub-culture than our peers globally, but what really is the identity of women’s basketball in this country?

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