10 of the Best Basketball Poems

The writers range in their experiences with the game and their understanding of what’s important about it. But, each poem has something important to share about how the sport can unify players, young and old, and bring athletes joy.

Slam, Dunk, & Hook by Yusef Komunyakaa

‘Slam, Dunk, & Hook’ by Yusef Komunyakaa is a beautiful poem that combines images of youth with those of a basketball game. The writer describes how his speaker and his friends moved their bodies “Like storybook sea monsters.” These movements are what bring the young players so much joy during the game. Here are a few more lines:

When Sonny Boy’s mama died

He played nonstop all day, so hard

Our backboard splintered.

Glistening with sweat,

We rolled the ball off

Our fingertips. Trouble

Was there slapping a blackjack

Against an open palm.

One on One in Basketball by Ray Fleming

‘One on One in Basketball’ zooms in on the moment the ta speaker went “up / effortlessly for the basket” and saw the ball go in. It was like, for a moment, he separated himself from his body and was able to watch his own actions. It had nothing to do with mysticism, he says at the end of the poem:

[…] only basketball.

I gave myself over to winning and

A dropping away (he imitated me),

And reclaimed some of those movements

…momentarily. It was good […]

Makin’ Jump Shots by Michael S. Harper

‘Makin’ Jump Shots’ by Michael S. Harper is a poem about an unknown basketball player playing on what’s clearly a street court. “He” is just as focused on his movements and the ball as he would be if he was part of a real game. Here are the last lines:

A sniff in the fallen air—

he stuffs it through the chains

riding high:

“traveling” someone calls—

and he laughs, stepping

to a silent beat, gliding

as he sinks two into the chains.

Ex-Basketball Player by John Updike

In Updike’s ‘Ex-Basketball Player,’ the writer describes Flick, an ex-basketball player who learned nothing but how to sell gas, check oils, and change flats. He peaked during his time as a basketball player, and now his life has shrunk down to hangouts at Mae’s Luncheonette.

In ’46

He bucketed three hundred ninety points,

A county record still. The ball loved Flick.

I saw him rack up thirty-eight or forty

In one home game. His hands were like wild birds.

Urban Renewal XVIII by Major Jackson

In this interesting poem, the poet’s speaker recalls what his life was like as a student and how he wanted to impress, but was scared of, the “arm-locked strutting” girls in “Central High.” He turned to basketball as a way to impress them.

You might say my whole life led

to celebrating youth and how it snubs and rebuffs.

Back then I learned to avoid what I feared

and to place my third-string hopes on a game-winning

basketball shot, sure it would slow them to a stop,

pan their lip-glossed smiles, blessing me with their cool.

Fall River by David Rivard

In ‘Fall River,’ Rivard is one of several narrative poems on this list. The poet describes waking up and looking at a poster, “Bill Russell & Wilt Chamberlain, one on one / the final game of the 1969 NBA championship.” He recalls the memories associated with it. As the poem progresses, the poet alludes to a rift that has formed between himself and his family. Despite the fact that he’s looking at the same poster, he’s in a very different place. Here are a few lines:

 It gets tacked

like a claim to some new wall in the next place—

Bill Russell & Wilt Chamberlain, one on one

the final game of the 1969 NBA championship,

two hard men snapped elbowing & snatching at a basketball

Courtesy by David Ferry

‘Courtesy’ by David Ferry is a narrative poem that takes place in August. It describes the narrator’s home and his neighbor’s. There’s a kid and a young man playing basketball in amongst the rest of the events of the day. The latter is teaching the former how to play the game. Here are a few lines:

They’re shooting baskets, amiably and mildly.

The noise of the basketball, though startlingly louder

Than the voices of the two of them as they play,

Is peaceable as can be, something like meter.

Loony Bin Basketball by Mary Karr

‘Loony Bin Basketball’ by Mary Karr follows an unusual basketball game. The players are given first names and character traits that lead the reader to believe that they may be from a mental health facility or the “loony bin,” as the title also suggests.  The poem is dedicated to  Phil Jackson, the former NBA coach, because, as the poet said, because of his interest in Buddhist meditation and an experience she had at such a class.

The gym opened out

before us like a vast arena, the bleached floorboards

yawned toward a vanishing point, staggered seats high

as the Mayan temple I once saw devoured by vines.

Each of us was eaten up inside—all citizens of lost

             and unmapped cities.

Dear Basketball by Kobe Bryant

‘Dear Basketball’ by Kobe Bryant depicts the poet’s love for the sport. He expresses his appreciation for basketball and how it made him into the person he became. Bryant published ‘Dear Basketball’ in The Player’s Tribune. He used it to announce his retirement in November 2015.  The poem takes the reader through Bryant’s emotional connection to the game. He describes what it was like to find it as a child and then to work hard to do the sport justice. His love for basketball shines through in every line of ‘Dear Basketball.’ The poem/letter then concludes with Bryant announcing his retirement. Here are a few lines:

As a six-year-old boy

Deeply in love with you

I never saw the end of the tunnel.

I only saw myself

Running out of one

Old Men Playing Basketball by B.H. Fairchild

In this poem, the poet describes the movements connected to a game of basketball. The poem uses sense imagery in order to help the reader envision exactly what’s happening on the court. There are phrases like “kissing the undersides” and “caught breath” that eventually lead to the realization that these are not professional basketball players but older men who are struggling but still enjoying the game. Here are the first four lines:

The heavy bodies lunge, the broken language

of fake and drive, glamorous jump shot

slowed to a stutter. Their gestures, in love

again with the pure geometry of curves,

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