Double Crossover: Gender, Media, and Politics in Global Basketball

by Courtney M. Cox

Overview

As they compete in leagues around the world, elite women’s basketball players continually adjust to new cultures, rules, and contracts.

Courtney M. Cox follows athletes, coaches, journalists, and advocates of women’s basketball as they pursue careers within the sport. Despite all attempts to contain them or prevent forward momentum, they circumvent expectations and open new possibilities within and outside of the game. Throughout the book, Cox explores the intersection of race and gender against the backdrop of the WNBA, NCAA, and other leagues within the United States and around the world.  Blending interviews and participant observation with content analysis, she charts how athletes and advocates of women’s hoops illuminate new forms of navigating the global sports-media complex.

Timely and original, Double Crossover takes readers into the lived world of women’s basketball to shed light on the struggles, triumphs, and contributions of today’s players and those around them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252088681
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	05/20/2025
Series:	Studies in Sports Media
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Courtney M. Cox is an assistant professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon and the co-director of The Sound of Victory, a multi-platform digital humanities project.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Abbreviations

Pregame          Introducing the Crossover

First Quarter   “Betting on Ourselves”: The Politics and Ethics of Care in the WNBPA

Second Quarter           Translating Time-Outs: The Choreography of Playing Overseas

Third Quarter      Mission Equity: New Sporting Labor Considerations within Athletes Unlimited

Fourth Quarter         You Can’t See Me: Moving Past Misogynoir during March Madness

Overtime         The Game Is Grown

Note on Sources

Notes

Index

 

Editorial Reviews

In this moment, when women’s basketball is finally getting the media coverage it deserves, I’m grateful for groundbreaking journalists like Courtney M. Cox, who have been telling these stories for years with both grace and heart. This book is essential—as innovative as the crossover moving through these pages.”—Mirin Fader, author of Dream: The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon

From the Publisher