Like all sports poems, basketball poems explore the world of basketball, its players, spectators and fans, and history. These poems celebrate the sport’s high points and sometimes low points while always inspiring readers to learn more and see the sport as a unifying, positive force in people’s lives.
Basketball poems are varied in their intention, but most paint the sport and its participants in a very positive light. It’s common to find basketball poems referencing specific athletes and events, records, games, and coaches. As with all genres of sports literature, it’s helpful to have a prior understanding of the sport and its major players. But it is not necessary for one’s enjoyment of poems inspired by basketball.
‘In Memory of the Utah Stars’ captures the manner in which memories can provide us with both pleasure and pain.
Each of them must have terrified
his parents by being so big, obsessive
and exact so young, already gone
and leaving, like a big tipper,
‘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.
From the moment
I started rolling my dad’s tube socks
And shooting imaginary
Game-winning shots
‘Basketball Rule #1’ is one of several rules that feature in Kwame Alexander’s book The Crossover. The novel won the
In this game of life
your family is the court
and the ball is your heart.
No matter how good you are,
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