Sociology of Sport: The Bulls vs. the Nets on April 22, 2013 Essay

On April 22, 2013, the Brooklyn Nets met the Chicago Bulls during the NBA basketball game in the eastern conference playoff. This was the second game in the series, and the players and the audience focused on the game’s results in order to predict the success in the next games after the win of the Nets in the first game of the series.

The game was held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Barclays Center can accommodate more than 18 thousands of spectators. The majority of seats were occupied with the teams’ fans. It is possible to note that the space and environments did not affect the behaviors of players or fans significantly because of rather comfortable conditions of the place.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to concentrate on the atmosphere which can be discussed as rather tense because of the game’s significance and because of players and audience’s excitement associated with the starting games of the series.

The fans of the Nets and the Bulls could be easily differentiated because of wearing the elements of the clothes and symbols with the teams’ main colours. The Nets’ fans represented the majority of the audience because of the specific place of the game to be held. The majority of the audience was the male public in different age categories, including students and middle-aged person.

It is possible to assume that the audience included many representatives of the upper middle class with references to the teams’ status. The public wore a lot of symbolic elements of clothing that is why it was rather difficult to state the social status of fans referring to their dress. The Latin Americans and African Americans were presented at the game.

The players of the Nets and the Bulls can be compared with the fans in relation to their age and race. Many players of two teams are African Americans in comparison with the racial division among the audience. Moreover, the middle age of players is not above 35 years when the middle age of the male audience can be discussed as above 37-38 years.

It is necessary to concentrate on the specifics of the players’ communication during the game. The style of the players’ game was not aggressive, but the tension was observed. It is possible to refer to the reaction of Joakim Noah (the Bulls) to different technical elements of the game in the form of loud screaming and even roar (Joakim Noah’s roar, 2013). The public actively reacted to the behaviors of the players also with screaming. The ‘waves’ of screaming were observed as the reaction to the teams’ successes as well as faults.

It was possible to observe the repeated behaviors of the fans when the groups of fans reflected the reactions of the other groups (Yiannakis & Melnick, 2001). Any deviant behaviors expressed by fans were observed. However, it is necessary to note the highly competitiveness among the fans in relation to supporting the team with screams and claps. Definite types of ritualistic behaviors were observed when the fans of the same team greeted each other (Delaney, 2009).

The special language is characteristic for the players, coaches, and commentators who use a lot of terms to describe the elements of the game. The fans are inclined to share specific knowledge about the results in the series of games, and about the players’ personalities and style of playing.

References

Delaney, T. (2009). The sociology of sports: An introduction. USA: McFarland.

Joakim Noah’s roar. (2013). Web.

Yiannakis, A., & Melnick, M. (2001). Contemporary issues in sociology of sport. USA: Human Kinetics.