Hi, this is Josh Levine, the host of Slate's Sports Podcast Hang Up and Listen.

I've got a special extra mini episode for you guys today on the secret history of the greatest chant in sports.

Back in January, an official from the Wisconsin

Interscholastic Athletics Association emailed officials at state high schools

to say that they should take immediate steps to correct unsporting behavior at school sanctioned games.

Among the unsporting behavior cited, students chanting, you can't do that,

fundamentals, airball, there's a net there, sieve, and we can't hear you. A little while later,

the WI.A. tried to walk back that email, saying, the intention of the message was misconstrued

and morphed into something far beyond what it was and what it was intended for. If that's the case,

then the WI.A.'s original email did a very poor job of making that distinction. Everybody chant,

confusing email.

The Wisconsin Sportocrat's biggest mistake here

was their failure to recognize

that some rhythmically chanted quasi-insults

are better than others.

Siv, sieve, sieve is impossible to chant in a harmonious fashion.

It's too harsh, too clipped. But air ball, air ball. Now that's a chant. It's sing-songy and devastating, a beautiful, brutal response to the most pitiful of basketball errors,

a shot that misses the basket entirely.

The airball chant can come out as a series of aggressive staccato bursts,

as in this 2010 game where Maryland fans jeered Clemson's Trevor Booker.

Ten point game.

Three Bob Booker, airball.

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