Crossover: Basketball, Public Space and Spectacle in Mexico

Centered around the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) 2017 “Global Games” exhibition in Mexico City and its accompanying events, this project explores the cultural and physical legacy of basketball in Mexico. As... [ view full abstract ]

Centered around the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) 2017 “Global Games” exhibition in Mexico City and its accompanying events, this project explores the cultural and physical legacy of basketball in Mexico. As the nation’s second most popular sport, basketball has evolved, taking on new social meanings both within the country (especially in southern Mexico) and in immigrant communities in the United States. The unique and authentic culture around the sport stands in tension with the homogenizing and flattening effects of much of the NBA’s involvement in the country. Through interviews with league officials, the mayor of Mexico City, scholarship on Mexican basketball culture and firsthand analysis of public spaces, this project explores the hypocrisies of the NBA as a global enterprise, the role of spectacle in attempting to mask these hypocrisies, and the different manifestations of the sport in public spaces.