After Dystopia
500 years is a long time. There’s no way to set a specific date for when society completely broke down and the world became a dystopian nightmare. Truth to tell it was a process. Happened bit by bit, place by place. In any case, let’s use the year 2075. At that point there was no meaningful civilization. The ½ to ¾ of a billion people, more or less, still living on the planet were getting along as best they could, which is to say not very well. And the human race probably survived by an eyelash on more than one occasion.
Any history from the era of 2075 through 2575, which is to say, now, is hazy, incomplete, and probably mostly incorrect. Somehow, humanity survived. Somehow, during the last half century or so, things turned around, slowly, gradually.
I don’t know how bad things got. I don’t know how few people were left, huddled against the horrific hot weather, the monstrous hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, crop failures, terrible food shortages, lack of available fresh water, bands of roving outlaws… Somehow all of that settled down- some.
True, there are still earthquakes and violent storms. It’s still hot, but getting a little better. True, there are still food and fresh water shortages when we’re not very careful, or when a storm hits in the wrong place at the wrong time, or when we’re just plain unlucky. We still post guards against outlaw bands.
BUT… we have civilization, in fair sized communities.
Many of these communities are near, but not right near what we used to call the East Coast of the U. S., through the area East of the Mississippi River (No one knows what’s going on in the Eastern Hemisphere. It may be a very long time before anyone will know that. Same holds for West of the Mississippi River; one wouldn’t think that would be such a difficult barrier to cross, but as far as is known, no one has crossed it, or even communicated with the other side. There are lots of theories regarding this but no solid data.).
There are communities all up and down the East Coast, from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in what was once Canada, to somewhere in Delaware in what was the U.S., and as far West as the Toronto area down through southern parts of what were once Indiana, Ohio, Illinois. Make a box and that will roughly cover the population centers in 2575. Oh, include most of Quebec Province, and lots of Ontario, and throw in the Maritimes, or the parts of them that are above water, which is not much.
What does all of this have to do with basketball? Good question.
Okay, there’s not a lot of long distance transportation. We do use rails to transport crops from one location to another- and what a job it was to rebuild a skeleton of THAT system, and all we have is a skeleton, but it gets the job done. There are solar powered and electric farm vehicles, and a few solar powered, and a few electric buses to get people from place to place. Most people use bicycles to get from place to place. Those who cannot, due to limits, disabilities, or whatever need to rely on the buses, which do not run often, but they run.
BUT… we’re back to functioning, and back to the point where we need entertainment, distraction. We have music, theater and art, but people love sports and games.
Given the limitations facing us the sport that our societies have embraced is basketball- it is played indoors. It requires very little in the way of equipment. It doesn’t take up a lot of room. Injuries are far fewer than in contact sports- all of which are outlawed. A game can be played in about two hours using college rules.
So here’s what happened. We formed conferences- 32 of them, just as there were in the old days. We named them with the names they had then. We formed teams. The same 352 that there were toward the end of the “good old days.”
We broke into 8 areas by population, and have 4 conferences in each of those 8 areas- as much as possible, one top conf., one bottom, and 2 in the middle, but sometimes two lower rated conferences. So Stanford and the Pac 12 actually play in high school gyms in central Illinois, and their non-conference games are against teams in their region. Transportation is minimal since each conference is essentially in the same community, and the other three conferences are relatively nearby.
Fans do not get to go to away games unless they can peddle their way by bicycle- without missing a shift at work.
So, until we get to the tournaments, and yes, there are post season tournaments- NCAA, NIT, CBI, there is no long term transportation. The three post season tournaments are all done via geography- 8 locations for the first round, then 4, then 2, then 1 for the NCAA, for example. This reduces the need for transportation tremendously. We have no air traffic. Teams travel by bus or rail. Our rail system is for freight, not for transportation, but when needed a passenger car or two can be attached.
Oh, the 8 regions. Understand that the names don’t mean a great deal because the locations are not what the names suggest- further inland for any shore communities, for example, but here they are: Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal, Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto, New York, Milwaukee.
So, tell you more? Okay. We have re-established the internet, and the games can be viewed, live or delayed, via the web, as can concerts, plays… There are MANY more benefits to having the web again, and those will come up as we move along.
People have a team to root for, to identify with. People have a sport to follow, to have fun being involved with if they like.
Do we have colleges? No. BUT, this “league,” if you will, is for college age kids (There’s a league for women as well, same rules, essentially). Eligibility is based upon two factors: 1. Grades in the course of study kids are taking, which is often an apprenticeship of some kind. 2. Satisfactory job performance- everyone has a job in our society, and everyone is evaluated regularly. A player becomes ineligible if s/he fails at either of the two. SAT scores? We test to evaluate potential, both general and specific to one’s field, at the beginning of the “college age” era. This is our SAT test.
Recruiting? Kids get to choose among the 4 schools in their region. We are not allowing kids to go to other regions except when a family move is happening for other reasons, but recruiting will look like it is international in scope.
So, as we move along, we’ll discuss hoops mostly, but also how we’re progressing as a society, the difficulties we’re having, the successes we’re having- all of that. You don’t even need to remember that Harvard doesn’t exist, it’s merely a team that plays in the Boston community, but then Boston doesn’t exist. Here goes: