Barack Obama Summer (Fall) Book Club, part VI.

11.6.2007 | 1:10 am | Obama for Prez, The Warriors

Three games—and three losses—into the new NBA season seems like a good enough time to bring back our friend Barack Obama. Not because I’m already avoiding the topic of basketball. Quite the opposite. The sixth chapter of The Audacity of Hope, “Faith,” is a quick study of religion in the modern political epoch. While much of it is concerned with the evolution of the modern church state under Bush II, large chunks are also devoted to a look at how his own evolution led him to the African American church as an adult after a childhood that treated religion as a largely anthropological enterprise.

What Obama came to realize was that the sense of community, of common purpose, that the black church provided was something that was not only uplifting in an individual sense, but something that made the community as a whole stronger and more responsive.

“For one thing, I was drawn to the power of the African American religious tradition to spur social change. Out of necessity, the black church had to minister to the whole person. Out of necessity the black church rarely had the luxury of separating individual salvation from collective salvation. It had to serve as the center of the community’s political, economic, and social as well as spiritual life; it understood in an intimate way the biblical call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and challenge powers and principalities.”

What does this have to do with basketball?

In the case of the Golden State Warriors, this idea has far more relevance than one might take from a first consideration. Think for a moment back to last April. The coach had publicly performed last rites on a team that was dinged up and all but out of the playoff hunt. And what began as a modest, homespun effort among die-hard Dubfans to keep the team motivated through a tough stretch of home games against some first-rate opponents turned into a movement that received national recognition and even envy. And it did so because it was largely based on faith. A mutual faith that grew to feed both fan and player alike. This faith announced itself as the healer of Richardson and Davis and the liberator of some of the most long-suffering fans in NBA history.

Individual salvation and collective salvation were inexorably intertwined in a compelling spectacle of mutual glorification. And a large number of suddenly overachieving underdogs—many of whom had suffered in the absence of a “We Believe” endorsement elsewhere in their careers—were suddenly emboldened to be both the actuary and the beneficiary of the collective salvation of which Mr. Obama speaks.

Perhaps I should take a moment to acknowledge that this is, after all, only basketball that I’m talking about here. But the beauty of collective belief is that it doesn’t have to be religious. It can be about basketball, sure. Or it can be about getting your candidate elected. It can even be about a product or a TV show. But when human beings decide to act in an organized way toward the benefit of the collective enterprise, everybody wins. When I went back to Oracle Arena after the summer’s-long absence, I immediately thirsted for the feeling that I had when I left the arena for the last time back in May. Then, I had just witnessed the crowning moment of decades worth of frustration: Baron Davis mashing one down on Kiralenko in the closing minutes to all but ice Golden State’s first win in the second round of the playoffs since 1991. And I was there. I had worn yellow. I had been part of the 120-decible roar. And I had been close enough to hear how the dunk of record sounded.

And the feeling on the way out to the car was remarkable not because it was a home playoff win. It was remarkable because it was abundantly clear that collective belief had a whole helluva lot to do with the outcome. But the takeaway is thus: this can be just as true for hardscrabble hoopers and tortured fans as it is for America. And the benefits of faith in a common enterprise is just as possible with religion or without it. It is about belief. Faith that we can do this. Or, as Obama would put it, recognizing our collective cause.

“I am suggesting that if we progressives shed some of our own biases, we might recognize the values that both religious and secular people share when it comes to the moral and material direction of our country. We might recognize that the call to sacrifice on behalf of the next generation, the need to think in terms of “thou” and not just “I”…”

This is a thought that is as relevant to a team that starts the season with three losses as it is to a presidential candidate who is being prematurely handed a second place finish in the primaries. We can do this. We believe.

Daniel Turman

PS. Barack was kinda funny on Saturday Night Live too. If you missed it, here it go.