Let Nick Greene teach you how to watch basketball like a genius

Nick Greene’s first book, How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius, is a brilliantly engaging and utterly unique look at the game we love.

It’s easy to assume that one has a solid understanding of the game of basketball. It’s a pretty simple sport, after all — you have to get the ball in the hoop and that’s it. What is it that makes that task so engaging to watch and so satisfying to do? How did a Canadian seminary graduate invent a game so malleable and enjoyable? What makes basketball so special?

In Nick Greene’s first book, How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius, he attempts to answer these questions, albeit in a roundabout and unusual way that turns out to be insightful and entertaining. As he explains in the prologue, “I sought out some of the smartest and most interesting people I could find and approached them with the same simple question: Would you like to talk about basketball?” In the process, Greene finds himself chatting with game designers, magicians, and the artistic director of the Oakland Ballet Company among several others in the hopes of unveiling insights about basketball. It makes for one of the best basketball books of the last several years.

The language of modern basketball analysis can easily become staid. Talk about efficiency and cap hits often overwhelms discourse about the alluring beauty of the game itself. The people Greene talks with speak of the game in more elemental terms and their awe of the athlete’s skill is evident. The shibboleths of most basketball discourse melt away and become irrelevant in light of these experts’ love for the game.

In the opening chapter, Greene examines the invention of basketball and what made it work both for the “incorrigible” students Naismith was trying to pacify as well as for the millions who have fallen in love with it in the years since. The game’s longevity is somewhat ironic because, as Greene notes, “only a few of Naismith’s original rules are essential or even applicable to the game as it is played today.” Meditating on these rules, Green goes on to speak with a professor of game design who considers what makes a game engaging generally before seeing how basketball does, or does not, abide by these principles. The rest of the book proceeds in a similar manner, with Greene considering a separate element of basketball before bringing in a specialist in a separate field who can then illuminate that aspect of the game by using their own non-basketball-related expertise.

The beauty of basketball is its inherent capacity for innovation

The spirit of invention is explored in later chapters, as Greene explores how dribbling — something not accounted for in Naismith’s original rules — became a fundamental part of the game in addition to how the shot clock and 3-point shot were invented. Greene writes that “while basketball is the only major sport that can be traced to a single person, that person’s most important contribution was that he relinquished control of his invention.” If Naismith had sought to copyright the game or worked to stamp out new developments like dribbling or inbounding after a made basket, it’s quite likely that basketball would be a footnote in athletic history. Instead, in each succeeding generation, players have found new ways to enliven the game with new innovations and ideas that keep it from becoming a staid artifact.

Each section brings a new perspective that feels like it should not work, though Greene brings it all together. In one chapter he speaks with a couples therapist about LeBron James’ passing abilities and the way he adjusts his game in order to accommodate his teammates while also speaking to a planetary geologist about the similarities between designing a trajectory for interplanetary travel and finding an open teammate for a pass. Over the course of the book readers will spend time with Nick Elam, who created the eponymous Elam Ending which has been utilized in the last two NBA All-Star Games; Bob Fisher, a Kansas man who holds 14 separate Guinness World Records relating to free-throw shooting; and, to discuss flopping, Greene consults both a philosopher at Penn State and a casting director for shows such as Ballers and Bloodline to discuss the ethics of flopping and how convincing various floppers are, respectively. While the book is insightful throughout, taking the game of basketball seriously, it is also irreverent in its approach which makes How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius a deceptively light read.

The book is also full of little anecdotes and trivia that brighten things throughout. For example, did you know that, as a whole, NBA players have never really improved or regressed as free throw shooters? Or that James Naismith “invented a medieval rack-like machine that he believed would make people taller”? Or that Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasione, the inventor of the shot clock, named himself an assistant coach after the league banned owners from sitting on the bench — all so he could have a legitimate excuse to yell at the referees. Greene clearly pored over a lot of writing about basketball history in order to dig up a number of fascinating nuggets like this. They are littered from page to page, making it a treasure trove for those interested in the history of the sport.

While there is a focus on the history and development of the sport, there is an equal showcase on the game’s style and what it is that keeps fans returning to watch night after night. Readers will be able to sense the delight not only in Greene’s prose but also in the quotes from the experts he interviews. They are uniform in their love for basketball and many happily go on about players they love most. With so much modern basketball writing focused on analysis and rumors and behind-the-scenes revelations, having a book that instead revels in how fun and cool the game is feels like a much-needed reprieve from these other narratives.

How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius is a rewarding read for anyone who loves the sport. It approaches basketball from a number of unique angles that make it feel new and exciting. It is almost as if one is reading about the game for the first time. Greene has written one of the best basketball books of recent years, one that combines history, reporting, and analysis in a very exciting way. Even the most ardent basketball fans will be invited to rethink well-worn truisms about the game’s development, why it developed the way it did, and what makes it so appealing. By looking at the game of basketball, from its rudimentary beginnings to the way it is played today, Greene helps readers see the game anew.