Napa High School's girls basketball team is a supremely gifted group. Every player on the roster is white in a town where people of color still stand out.
Vanden High School is located on the outskirts of Fairfield, just off I-80 about 45 miles from Oakland. The girls basketball team is one of the best in Northern California. Every player on the Vikings' roster is black and lives in a place where, odd as it sounds, minority groups have become the majority.
Those of us who still choose to believe basketball, and sports, success has to do with something more than race and economic status figured Napa's girls were in good position to win the game. Heck, it was the group from Napa that hooked up the booming hip-hip and rap mix to blast through the gymnasium speaker system during pre-game warm-ups. If basketball was about funk and soul and whatever else apparently lies at the roots of rap and hip-hop -- Napa's kids chose the music to back up their game.
The only thing separating the two highly-rated teams was that one had all blacks and the other had all whites. Race and the neighborhood a kid lives in didn't seem to make any difference. Both teams had great records and star players. Play on.
When warm-ups ended, Napa's girls skipped back to their bench. Vanden's girls huddled in the middle of the court and chanted loudly as they swayed back and forth. That, as it turns out, was the all-black Vikings serving notice that sports success is actually a lot about race and background because race and background influences confidence, desire and skill.
The crowd, made up largely of Napa fans, went immediately silent as the Vanden chant began. The Vikings were greeted with smirks and raised eyebrows when they walked over to their bench. They, as it turned out, had no idea because it turns out that Vanden's girls make every gymnasium their gymnasium. Attitude and focus do play a role in basketball, so ... OK ... the team from the inner-city had an edge. Those smirks and raised eyebrows were actually nervous reactions from Napa fans who aren't used to, um, seeing...you know...er...a team with...with all...uh...girls in green uniforms who stomp the gym like they own it.
Now, there are people who saw the Napa-Vanden game who'll insist that the Vikings' near-30 point victory had nothing to do with race, heritage and social status. There are those, though, who could see that it had everything to do with the victory.
The players and teams do have largely equal skill sets and were equally prepared as units. Why, then, did Vanden's fullcourt pressing defense result in every Napa player giving the ball up almost immediately in the face of pressure?
When the game really started to turn Vanden's way, each player in Napa's lineup slowly backed down. (After the game, even the Napa coach said, "Our team just folded.") By the end, only one Napa player was still challenging Vanden. This player, who isn't normally in position to handle the ball, became the lone ballhandler. When her peers stepped back, she stepped up. (She's one of the finest female athletes in the state and, thus, has had to get past preconceived notions of what should happen when gifted black, inner-city athletes compete against more privileged suburan white kids.)
At one point, one of Napa's key players was knocked to the ground. She sat there long enough for the aforementioned Napa standout to shout, "Get up! C'mon!" The look on her face seemed to show that she hadn't considered whether winning a basketball game was worth getting knocked down over.
Just seconds later, one of Napa's primary scorers and rebounders jumped for the ball -- exactly when Vanden's 6-foot-1 center jumped for it. The Napa girl went flailing out of bounds as the Vanden player grabbed the ball and dropped it through the hoop. Again, the look on the Napa player's face showed that she and her teammates aren't accustomed to making every fight for a loose ball a fight for life in microcosm.
Most all agree that blacks are quicker and jump higher than whites. So, we hesitate to rate quickness and leaping ability on what seems to be skin color alone. But, Napa's got a pretty productive fullcourt press and big rebounders. Vanden responded to them with quick passes and bursts to the basket. Take away the one Napa all-state type athlete and there wasn't a single player in a white uniform as quick or as quick to get off the ground as any girl in a green uniform.
Napa's girls seemed intimidated by their all-black opponent. That was the difference in the game. Napa's girls wanted to win and were prepared to win. Vanden's girls played like they had to win, as though victory was the only acceptable result.
It was a clash of cultures. There are probably culture clashes in gyms all across the country on any given night.
In Napa, and other more privileged spots in America, kids grow up being taught that a "good try" is the goal. They are surrounded by adults who try to coach out of them a desire to play as though victory is the only acceptable result. The youth sports culture in white, suburban America has taken too far the notion that it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.
Go out there thinking about giving a good try and believing that winning and losing doesn't matter will get a girls high school basketball team run out of the gym.
Vanden's girls basketball team pushes and bumps and scores and scores and...they understand that opponents will push back. They live in a world where lots of pushing and pulling goes on every single day -- sometimes just to survive. So, go ahead, play hard...push them...knock them around. They can handle it. Heck, they expect it.
It's 2010, but an all-white team still doesn't necessarily want to throw down when they can back down against a confident, aggressive all-black team.
It's culture thing.
Kids who grow up in the inner city under harsh economic conditions will get run over and forgotten if they get knocked down, so they rarely back down. Youngsters who come from more affluent areas maybe feel like they have a fall back position if they get knocked down, so they'd just as soon back down.
Yeah, it's a culture thing.
