Basketball - Social Forms of Basketball

Social Forms of Basketball

Basketball has been adopted by various social groups, which have established their own environments and sometimes their own rules. Such socialized forms of basketball include the following.

  • Recreational basketball, where fun, entertainment and camaraderie rule rather than winning a game;
  • Basketball Schools and Academies, where students are trained in developing basketball fundamentals, undergo fitness and endurance exercises and learn various basketball skills. Basketball students learn proper ways of passing, ball handling, dribbling, shooting from various distances, rebounding, offensive moves, defense, layups, screens, basketball rules and basketball ethics. Also popular are the basketball camps organized for various occasions, often to get prepared for basketball events, and basketball clinics for improving skills.
  • College and University basketball played in educational institutions of higher learning.
    • This includes National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) intercollegiate basketball.
  • Disabled basketball played by various disabled groups, such as
    • Bankshot basketball,
    • Deaf basketball,
    • Wheelchair basketball, a sport based on basketball but designed for disabled people in wheelchairs and considered one of the major disabled sports practiced.
  • Ethnic and Religion-based basketball: Examples of ethnic basketball include Indo-Pak or Russian or Armenian leagues in the United States or Canada, for example, or Filipino expatriate basketball leagues in the Gulf or the United States. Religion-based basketball includes, most notably, church-related Christian basketball leagues, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu basketball leagues, and so on. or denominational leagues like Coptic, Syriac/Assyrian basketball leagues in the United States or Canada.
  • Gay basketball played in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities in gay basketball leagues. The sport of basketball is a major part of events during the Gay Games, World Outgames and EuroGames.
  • Midnight basketball, a basketball initiative to curb inner-city crime in the United States and elsewhere by keeping urban youth off the streets and engaging them with sports alternatives to drugs and crime.
  • Mini basketball played by underage children.
  • Maxi Basketball played by more elderly individuals.
  • Prison basketball, practiced in prisons and penitentiary institutions. Active religious basketball missionary groups also play basketball with prisoners. Some prisons have developed their own prison basketball leagues. At times, non-prisoners may play in such leagues, provided all home and away games are played within prison courts. Film director Jason Moriarty has released a documentary relating to the sport, entitled Prison Ball.
  • Rezball, short for reservation ball, is the term used to describe the avid Native American following of basketball and, in some areas, the style of play of Native American teams.
  • School or High school basketball, the sport of basketball being one of the most frequently exercised and popular sports in all school systems.
  • Show basketball as performed by entertainment basketball show teams, the prime example being the Harlem Globetrotters. There are even specialized entertainment teams, including
    • Celebrity basketball teams made of celebrities (actors, singers, and so on.) playing in their own leagues or in public, often for entertainment and charity events;
    • Midget basketball teams made up of athletes of short stature offering shows using basketball;
    • Slamball offered as entertainment events.

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