Beyond the Bracket: How basketball can prevent gun violence

Can investing in youth sports—especially in certain neighborhoods where children are particularly vulnerable—reduce gun violence? In this episode, Rashawn Ray, senior Brookings Governance Studies fellow, leads a conversation on the role that basketball can play in community building and reducing violent conflict. Joining him are Hanna Love, Brookings fellow; Howard Levy, head men's basketball coach at Mercer County Community College and a founder of Play Smart Save Lives; and Craig Robinson, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Show notes and transcript . Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu .

You can listen to Beyond the Bracket: How basketball can prevent gun violence online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Beyond the Bracket: How basketball can prevent gun violence is an episode from The Current by The Brookings Institution.

This episode is 18:21 long.

This episode was published on Mar 26, 2026.

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