Ball Don't Lie

Pro basketball player Rasheed Wallace often exclaimed the pragmatic truth Ball dont lie! during a game. It is a protest against a referees bad calls. But the slogan, which originated in pickup games, brings the reality of a racialized urban playground into mainstream American popular culture. In Ball Dont Lie!, Yago Cols traces the various forms of power at work in the intersections between basketball and language from the games invention to the present day. He critiques existing popular myths concerning the history of basketball, contextualizes them, and presents an alternative history of the sport inspired by innovations. Cols emphasizes the creative prerogative of players and the ways in which their innovations shapeand are shaped bybroader cultural and social phenomena. Ball Don't Lie! shows that basketball cannot be reduced to a single, fixed or timeless essence but instead is a continually evolving exhibition of physical culture that flexibly adapts to and sparks changes in American society.