Is women's basketball "better" basketball? In Basketball and Philosophy, a Dream Team of twenty-six academics trained in philosophy -- also diehard hoops fans -- proves that basketball is the thinking fan's sport. Power Foreword xi Dick Vitale Acknowledgments xiii Tip-off: Hoops, Pop Culture, and Philosophy 1(6) First Quarter: Baseline Values, Enduring Lessons Building Communities One Gym at a Time: Communitarianism and the Decline of Small-Town Basketball 7(12) Stephen H. Webb To Hack or Not to Hack? (The Big) Aristotle, Excellence, and Moral Decision-Making 19(12) Thomas D. Kennedy Basketball Purists: Blind Sentimentalists or Insightful Critics? 31(13) R. Scott Kretchmar Hardwood Dojos: What Basketball Can Teach Us about Character and Success 44(13) Gregory Bassham Mark Hamilton What Would Machiavelli Do? Confronting the Strategic Cheater in Pickup Basketball 57(14) Regan Lance Reitsma Basketball, Violence, Forgiveness, and Healing 71(12) Luke Witte The Breaks of the Game: Luck and Fairness in Basketball 83(11) Scott A. Davison The Beauty of the Game 94(13) Peg Brand Myles Brand Second Quarter: Prime-Time Players, Coaches, and Sages The Zen Master and the Big Aristotle: Cultivating a Philosopher in the Low Post 107(9) Fritz Allhoff Anand J. Vaidya Wilt versus Russell: Excellence on the Hardwood 116(13) David K. O'Connor The Wizard versus the General: Why Bob Knight Is a Greater Coach than John Wooden 129(18) Jerry L. Walls Third Quarter: Shooting From the Perimeter The Dao of Hoops 147(11) Dirk Dunbar Hoop Dreams, Blacktop Realities: Basketball's Role in the Social Construction of Black Manhood 158(10) Bernard Jackson Jr. She Got Game: Basketball and the Perfectly Developed Woman 168(17) Deborah A. Wallace James M. Wallace Fourth Quarter: Metaphysical Madness Shooting with Confidence 185(11) Kevin Kinghorn The Hot Hand in Basketball: Illusion or Reality? 196(11) Steven D. Hales Philosophers Can't Jump: Reflections on Living Time and Space in Basketball 207(13) Tim Elcombe Playing for the Same Team Again 220(15) Matthew H. Slater Achille C. Varzi Plato and Aristotle on the Role of Soul in Taking the Rock to the Hole 235(9) Daniel B. Gallagher The Basket That Never Was 244(12) Thomas P. Flint Hoosiers and the Meaning of Life 256(18) Michael L. Peterson The Lineup 274(5) Index 279