page_title: Basketball (The Office)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Basketball (The Office) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: actor John Krasinski and actor/film producer Josh Wood attending 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California
context_page_description: "Basketball" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American comedy television series The Office. The episode aired on NBC in the United States on April 19, 2005. The episode was written and directed by producer Greg Daniels, marking both his first solo writing credit and first directing credit for the series. This episode also marks the first appearance of comedian Patrice O'Neal.
  In this episode, Michael Scott and the office staff take on the workers in the warehouse in a basketball game. Owing to racist and sexist stereotypes, Michael chooses many less-skilled office workers for the team over their more athletically talented peers. Michael claims a "flagrant personal intentional foul," stops the game, and declares his team as the winners. The warehouse finds the call unfair and Michael caves under pressure and concedes the victory to the warehouse staff.
  The episode was inspired by a deleted scene from the first episode where Michael talks about a pick-up basketball game. For two days, the cast of The Office played actual basketball games, which were then spliced together to give the effect of one continuous game.
context_section_description: "Basketball" was written and directed by producer Greg Daniels. Although he wrote the episode, Daniels was not originally scheduled to direct "Basketball." Rainn Wilson remarked that he really pushed for Daniels to direct the episode. John Krasinski applauded Daniels for being the first writer to "take [the characters] out of the office." Daniels later said that his favorite shot from the episode was when Michael takes Ryan on a tour of the warehouse because "you got to see the whole basketball [set]." The editors' cut for the episode was 40 minutes long. During the commentary for the episode, Steve Carell argued that the American version of The Office was more difficult to shoot because the British version was 29 minutes long, whereas the American version could only be 22 minutes.
  The inspiration for the episode was a deleted scene from the pilot episode where Michael talks about a pick-up basketball game. During filming, the cast and crew were filmed playing real basketball games for two days. The takes were then spliced together to make it appear as if only one game had taken place. NBC was worried about the episode because several of their other pilots had done basketball episodes. The network put a lot of pressure on the cast and crew to make the episode appear "as realistic as it could be." Donald Lee Harris designed the warehouse set, which Krasinski described as "amazing" and "detailed."
  Several of the actors had basketball experience, such as Krasinski, who played for his high school team. Brian Baumgartner, who portrays Kevin, actually succeeded in making 14 free-throw shots, of which several were included in the final footage. Steve Carell later said of his basketball skills, "The thing about looking like you're bad at basketball is, it's like anything else, you have to be incredibly good in order to look bad […] but that's not the case with me and basketball. I just was bad." However, Carell joked that he would "kick ass" at a hockey episode, a reference to his real-life hockey skills.
  "Basketball" contained several lines that became fan and cast favorites. Two of Michael's lines, "The hand strikes and gives a flower" and "Blessed be those who sit and wait" were described by Wilson as Confucian and biblical, respectively. Carell joked that Michael Scott himself should self-publish a book of inspirational sayings. Jenna Fischer revealed that her line, "Please don't throw garbage at me" was her favorite line of the first season. Michael's line, "Try not to be too gay on the court" was improvised by Carell and Krasinski's reaction was real, as he had no idea Carell was going to say it.
caption: John Krasinski, a former high school basketball star, performed all his own stunts in the episode.
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