Video Quiz Wrap-up: Celebrations make chemistry

We’ll start with the answers to Quiz 8, then reflect on the celebrations.

Quiz 8 Question

This is the hardest one so far. I didn’t notice this celebration until I started looking at video for this series. So to get full credit, you have to post your answer to the comments.

Question (5 pts): What kind of event is being celebrated? Be as specific as possible.

Here is Anderson Varejao patting his head.

And this play was so good Varejao pats his own head and Ian Clark’s.

And finally, Stephen Curry pats his own head on the right with James Michael McAdoo doing his own version of it on the left. Presumably taking over once Varejao was waived from the team.

Quiz 8 Answers

Here are the full clips. You can see the gesture celebrates a big dunk on a defender. I think it represents the ball bouncing off the defender’s head.

Final Thoughts

I skipped some celebrations that are awesome but that I didn’t think formed a part of this sign language, like Andre Iguodala’s happy feet celebration and others you can think of. I also skipped the “flex” celebration (pop quiz: when do they use this?) which does form a part of the language, just because I think fans can take it the wrong way as rubbing it in.

So, what does it all mean? Most of these celebrations (particularly Quiz 5 - 8) are subtle and not for showing off to the general audience. So who is it for?

For each other, of course. A team is tied together by culture, and culture is enacted by rituals. These celebrations in the series are the best kind of rituals, as it is a way for players — particularly for those on the bench -- to show they are paying close attention to the small achievements of their teammates.

I like doing these quizzes. I might do a future video series on NBA rules. I also am considering doing more retro-Explain One Plays to past great games/plays before Fall 2015.

I’m also open to other ideas.

Happy championship summer, everyone!