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Shivakiran Annareddy

Professor Gardiakos

ENC 1102

22 September 2020

Genre Analysis and Intertextuality

Basketball is a very popular and renowned sport throughout the whole

world. This people-favored sport was founded in 1891 by James Naismith, who

had written the original basketball rulebook and founded the University of Kansas

basketball program. Although it was founded in the United States of America, the

sport had spread quickly through people having interactions about this game and

bonding over ideas and thoughts associated with this game. “Trends in

Euroleague and NBA basketball: Analysis and comparison of statistical data from

2000 to 2017” is an academic article published in the academic journal of PLoS

ONE written by Radivoj Mandic (University of Belgrade, Faculty of Sport and

Physical Education, Belgrade, Serbia), Sasa Jakovljevic (University of Belgrade,

Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Belgrade, Serbia), Frane Erculj (Faculty of

Sports, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia) and Erik Strumbelj (Faculty of

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Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia).

These authors are very experienced with the area of basketball and they are well

aware of what happens in the European basketball league (Euroleague) and the

National Basketball Association (NBA). The academic article includes an extensive

dive into the respective statistics of each league as it also explains the formulas

used by the authors in order to evaluate certain statistics and it compares the

respective statistics of each league with the use of visual representation such as

graphs, tables, and charts. The use of all these elements make it easier for the

reader to follow the authors’ support of their claims and ideas with the evidence

presented throughout the span of the article.

To begin with, as it is evident in any academic article, the authors’ purpose

of publishing an academic article would be to support their claim. There is no

exception to this rule in “Trends in Euroleague and NBA basketball: Analysis and

comparison of statistical data from 2000 to 2017”. In this academic article, the

authors explain how the competition in European basketball leagues is catching

up to the level of competition in the National Basketball Association. The authors

explain how the gap or difference in the level of competition in both leagues is

narrowing throughout the years and they predict that this trend will continue,
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which will eventually make the Euroleague to be viewed as tough to play in as the

NBA. If I am able to recall correctly, when I was first learning about the NBA in

elementary school, I used to hear of players taking a break from the NBA by going

to play overseas. I eventually figured out that this was done in order to get better

and pull their game back together to make themselves competent in the NBA.

This led me to formulating the conclusion that overseas leagues such as the

Euroleague made it easier for players to get their game back together as the

competition was not that intense as it was in the NBA. I thought that the articles

mentioning these players’ moves to go overseas were just saying it in a nice way

to not offend the competition in the overseas leagues. These academic articles

with this specific genre tend to be organized in a very specific manner in my

opinion. The genre is organized by starting off with the introduction being

presented, which contains the background information and the authors’ claim in

order to ensure that the reader does not get confused when going through the

information presented in the article, then the data collecting methods are

presented in order to show the reader how the authors obtained certain statistics

to back up their claim, then the data is analyzed with the presentation of various

graphic elements like graphs, charts, and tables and the conclusion is finally
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reached at the end of the article. The organization of articles in these kinds of

genres can be viewed to be as similarly organized as scientific experiments. The

information that the genre includes is all basketball related as it analyzes various

aspects in the competitive sport and the genres of these articles compare various

leagues or teams. In order to further develop their claim in the comparison

argument, they have to analyze various aspects of the game and recognize who is

better in each aspect and by how much. That can be determined and explained in

qualitative or quantitative terms. To be explicit, this academic article can be

depicted as being located in the sports genre or basketball genre. These various

descriptions of competitions in the genre and the differences between leagues

helps me recognize how only specific leagues become of interest and an

inspiration in these discourse communities. I feel that articles such as the

academic article being featured in this paper are created through what catches

the attention of the people in these kinds of discourse communities.

In addition to this specific genre having a specific type of organization and

claims, intertextuality serves as the backbone of supporting the claims made by

the authors in this article. Articles that are within this specific genre require a

good amount of intertextuality, because all their claims are formed by

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information they formulate and knowledge that they obtain through reading

various sources, watching multiple games and self-experience. Opinions and

claims on topics related to basketball or any kind of sports-related discussion are

more accurate or less prejudiced if it is backed up by experience or viewing

games. The sources in this article exemplify the same purpose for the

argument/claims being made by the authors. The first source listed in the

“References” page of the article is an academic article that is written by multiple

authors as well. It contributes to the argument in the article by being the source

of the information about game related statistics which discriminate between

winning and losing under-16 male basketball games. The statistics involved in

these kinds of basketball games can be relevant to the professional basketball

level as they both contain some very common ground rules. The authors utilize

this source in the academic article by using its information to help them create a

linear model depicting teams’ success in the NBA and Euro league. The second

source in the “References” page is written by Oliver D. and it is a book. The

second source helps provide the rules and tools for performance analysis of

basketball on paper. This evidently helps the authors in the academic article to

create an argument full of depth with having the standards for comparison in the
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game of basketball. It was one of the keys to analyzing the differentiability in

performance for both leagues. The third source is written by multiple authors and

is a journal like the second source. It contains an empirical examination on factors

that affect the success of college basketball teams in NCAA Division I. This helps

the authors of the academic article to relate comparisons about professional

basketball leagues to college basketball in order to help the reader better

understand if they can’t comprehend a comparison made in the article. Also, this

source helped to evaluate what factors in the live game affected a team’s ability

to win which could not be seen if a game was being analyzed on paper. All of

these sources contribute heavily to the validity of the claims made by the authors

in the article. The authors’ purpose of writing this article is to inform and

persuade the readers, which is helped by the information provided by these three

sources and many others in the “References” page.

To conclude with, academic discourse communities are the main catalyst

for creating genres and academic articles. Discourse communities that hold a

good interest in the sport of basketball are the ones that start arguments

associated with the sport or are the ones that start comparing various leagues
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that have adapted the sport. Since they hold the best interest in the topic, the

discourse communities are viewed to be the basis for where the best discussions

take place. This academic article does a great job of presenting a claim and

backing it up with information found in various sources across the web and

library. The best part about articles in this specific genre is that they include visual

representation of information, which becomes visually appealing to the viewer

instead of looking over evidence that consists of words all day.

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Bibliography

1. Mandić, Radivoj, et al. “Trends in NBA and Euroleague Basketball: Analysis

and Comparison of Statistical Data from 2000 to 2017.” Plos One, vol. 14,

no. 10, 2019.

2. Lorenzo A, Go´mez MA´, Ortega E, Iba´ñez SJ, Sampaio J. Game related

statistics which discriminate between winning and losing under-16 male

basketball games. Journal of sports science & medicine. 2010; 9(4):664.

3. Oliver D. Basketball on paper: rules and tools for performance analysis.

Potomac Books, Inc.; 2004.

4. Akers MD, Wolff S, Buttross TE. An empirical examination of the factors

affecting the success of NCAA Division I College Basketball teams. Journal of

Business and Economic Studies. 1992.