Is basketball a sport or a game?

Or, is this simplistic question a distraction?

Can a game be a sport? Are all sports games? Although it lacks the physical demands of athletics, are there ways that chess exhibits the essence of what we call sports?

Basketball is a sport and a game. In my opinion not every sport is a game, because for example climbing is a sport but not a game

SCUBA Diving is a sport, and a profession, but can it sometimes be a game? There is competition wayfinding and underwater sport fishing.

Chess imo, is a sport that exercises mental "muscles"

Yes.

All sports come from games. Some sports are more physically demanding than others. Those sports are often also equally or more demanding mentally. Chess has a world championship, so that alone should honestly make it a sport.

Basketball "steals" from chess.

Chess invented the clock, as far I know, back in days of sand glasses, hourglasses, who knows when.

Basketball only adopted it in 1954.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_clock

This is dumb basketball is a global known sport

Running is not a game. It's just running.

Running is a sport.

Soccer is a game, making running a game.

Basketball players pretend to be chess players. Not the other way around.

Prestige goes to chess.

sports are games

The orgin of chess, dates back to antiquity.

Basketball started with this guy.

Put the ball into the basket.

Depends what your definition of a game is, and what kind of running we are talking about.

Also, I feel compelled to ask considering the fact that you seem to contradict a lot of things practically everyone posts here, is that what you are in forums to do?

Chess is a game. Here's Chinese chess.

The "King" cannot go outside the Palace.

Now does that look like soccer or vice versa?

Stallone sure knows how to make movies.

Against the back drop of a real modern highly technological war, ancient stuff wins.

Put the dead goat in the circle is ancient.

I'm not talking about this kind of running.

I'm talking about this kind of running.

Horse running.

Not the kind of horse running in Secretariat or Seabiscuit.

The kind of horse running in Rambo III.