Business & Strategy
Section 1
Core Idea
Basketball politics is the dynamic where a few people have the ball (information, decisions, access) and others orbit around them, waiting for a pass. In organisations, it shows up as bottlenecked decisions, gatekeepers, and star-dependent workflows. The core idea: recognise when the "game" depends on too few players and either distribute the ball or design around it.
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Section 2
How to See It
Decision-Making
You're seeing Basketball Politics when important decisions routinely wait on one or two people — "we need X's sign-off" — and when moving fast means getting the ball to the right person rather than having clear ownership.
Communication
You're seeing Basketball Politics when information flows through key individuals who become nodes; others learn by being "in the loop" with those nodes rather than through transparent channels or docs.
Section 3
How to Use It
Map who has the ball for critical decisions and information. If too much depends on too few, either delegate authority and information (distribute the ball) or formalise the dependency so the team doesn't pretend it's scalable. Document decision rights and default paths so the game doesn't stall when the star is out.
Decision filter
"Who has the ball for this decision or piece of information? If it's always the same one or two people, we're running basketball politics. Do we want that, or do we want to pass the ball to more players?"
As a founder
Audit key decisions: who can say yes/no? If the answer is "only me" or "only the co-founder," either assign DRI and authority to others or accept the bottleneck and protect that person's time. Avoid the worst case: everyone assumes someone else has the ball and nothing moves.
Section 5
Founders & Leaders
Phil KnightCo-founder & former CEO, Nike
Knight built Nike with a small inner circle and a culture where key decisions flowed through him and a few lieutenants — classic basketball politics at scale. He eventually distributed the ball by building a leadership bench and delegating categories and geographies. Founders can apply this by recognising when they are the bottleneck and deliberately passing decision rights and context to others before growth makes the dependency painful.
Section 7
Connected Models
Reinforces
Directly Responsible Individual
DRI assigns one owner per outcome. Basketball politics is the opposite: the ball floats until a star grabs it. Introducing clear DRI is one way to distribute the ball and reduce dependency on a few players.
Tension
Span of Control
Span of control is how many people report to one leader. The tension: wide span can dilute the "ball" (attention, decisions); narrow span can centralise it. Design span so the ball is where it should be without creating a single point of failure.
Leads-to
Organisational Debt
Unaddressed basketball politics becomes organisational debt: decisions and context live in people's heads, and scaling means more people waiting for the same few. Pay down the debt by documenting and delegating.
Section 8
One Key Quote
— Reed Hastings, No Rules Rules (2020)"If you have a culture where only a few people have the ball, you don't have a scalable company. You have a dependency."
Section 11
Summary & Further Reading
Basketball politics is when a few people hold the ball (decisions, information). Recognise it, then either distribute the ball through DRI and delegation or formalise the dependency so the team can operate around it.
01
Book
Netflix's approach to context and decision rights; reducing bottleneck and "ball hogging."
02
Book
Organisational clarity and accountability so information and decisions don't bottleneck.
03
Book
Nike's growth and the evolution from centralised control to distributed leadership.