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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. The NBA Finals kicked off yesterday, so I think a lot of us are thinking about basketball. Harlem globetrotter and mixed media artist Maxwell Pierce thinks about it all the time, too, but not in the way you might think.
In high school, Maxwell's coach told him to stop trying to dunk the basketball, but he didn't listen, and it changed everything.
Although we were playing sports, we weren't coached to be very playful. I learned that there was a seriousness in respecting the quality of the game. But ironically, it was my playfulness that got me to this point in my career. Play is the most important ingredient in every person and every industry's evolution.
Maxwell, who's also known as Hops because of his ability to jump quite high, has spent his career proving that creativity and discipline aren't opposites. In his talk from our first ever Play at TED conference, he argues that the same playful mindset that got him to both places is available to all of us.
He also shares more about his artwork, which he makes from a variety of mediums, including old basketballs and nets.
Play has given me the flexibility, but also the vision to see these materials as something more than just what we use on the court or on the field.
Stick around after the talk. We caught up with TED's curator, Chloe Shasha Brooks, who shared a few more thoughts about Maxwell, what he shared on stage, and what it was like working with him behind the scenes. That's all coming up right after a short break.
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Chapter 2: What inspired Maxwell Pearce to embrace play in sports?
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And now our TED Talk of the day.
I am a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, a legendary exhibition basketball team that is credited for integrating the NBA, popularizing new moves like the alley-oop and creating so many others. These are the new moves that have advanced the game, but they've also given joy to the people that come and watch us perform.
And that right there is precisely how we have lasted for 100 years while also earning a spot in the Hall of Fame. Getting to this point in my career certainly was not a straight line. I've always struggled with high-level sports coaching. There's a certain culture that has excessive cursing, yelling and also a hyper-seriousness that can really stunt your growth.
Although we were playing sports, ironically, we were coached not to be very playful. I was a creative kid who loved art, but I was really, really shy.
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Chapter 3: How does play influence creativity in sports and art?
So the constant confrontation with my coaches was always robbing me of my creativity. I learned that there was a seriousness in respecting the quality of the game. Whether it was basketball, football, baseball or cross country, all of my coaches emphasized honoring and respecting the essence of their sport.
And that meant taking every drill and every exercise seriously and not doing anything that will challenge the traditional way of doing things. This is exactly what led my high school coach to telling me to stop trying to dunk the basketball. But ironically, it was my playfulness that got me to this point in my career.
So here's where I've landed today, and this is what I'm so excited to share with you all. Play is the most important ingredient in every person and every industry's evolution. I am an athlete and an artist, and I have witnessed how play can break rules to improve both of these worlds that I live in. So just imagine if play, creativity and a little bit of rule-breaking was in every industry.
There once was a time in basketball where dunking was frowned upon so much that the NCAA banned it for nine years. Once that ban was lifted, the popularity of the game skyrocketed. This context reminds me of my coaches yelling at me to stick to the fundamentals, all because I decided or had the audacity to try and dunk the ball one time.
Thankfully, I didn't listen to them, and I got more and more comfortable with it. And over time, I was able to land my first dunk contest.
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Chapter 4: What role did rule-breaking play in Maxwell's career?
With a lot of work, I was able to build a global reputation for dunking the basketball. I began to experiment with the boundaries of this. I would incorporate things that we didn't normally associate with dunking, like with a dog, or catching a baseball, or catching the ball without looking from someone else who's not looking.
Every time I approached this with a playful mindset, I was rewarded, not only with advancing the game, but also with the opportunities that I dreamed of as a kid. There were several video games that I used to love to play, like NBA Live and NBA 2K, and I had the opportunity to feature my dunks in both of them.
I've also had the opportunity to feature my dunks in GQ magazine, as well as SportsCenter Top 10, and eventually received an honorable mention for an ESPY award. Unlike what my coaches constantly bickered about, being a Globetrotter requires much of the opposite. So much of what we love about the game today, a lot of that was at one point deemed as not fundamental or nontraditional.
There's a beauty in balancing seriousness with play. For example, if I decided that I wanted to do something and I accidentally made a mistake, there is a way that I could brush that off. When a Globetrotter makes a mistake, They can have it be overlooked because of how they playfully embrace its direction.
They recognize that something went wrong, but they actually welcome the unfamiliarity that comes with that new position. What I've learned is that in order to get to that point, you have to be able to roll with it. Because otherwise, you'll stop before you're ever able to discover something new. And that is actually how we are able to stumble upon a new concept.
As I mentioned before, I am also an artist. In fact, the artist side of me came before I was ever a basketball player. Basketball, amongst other sports, has allowed me to have an ongoing relationship as it impacts my practice as an artist. Sports have given me the tools to identify voids in and around my life, while also giving me a platform to fill them.
Again, I was a really shy kid, so art was my way of expressing myself when sports didn't give me the opportunity to. I used to create drawings of my favorite anime characters. I would paint pictures of animals. And over time, I started to focus on people with real stories. Some of these experiences that I've had with basketball have allowed me to gain a new perspective.
One day, I decided to cut up some shoelaces and put them on a canvas. I wasn't totally satisfied with it just yet, but I knew that I had something significant there. Using this as my medium has allowed me to communicate my identity through my pieces. One of the signatures that's constantly through my work is using pieces of equipment that are a part of my personal journey as an athlete.
For example, sometimes that's cut-up basketballs from a past Globetrotter game. Other times, that's tennis rackets from my childhood. And sometimes it's just shoelaces that I wore when I was doing something important. Play has given me the flexibility but also the vision to see these materials as something more than just what we use on the court or on the field.
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