One hundred thirty years ago, the first basketball game played outside North America was held in Paris, France, the first step in a global movement recently celebrated with World Basketball Day—one that Philadelphia now has a unique tie into thanks to its very own Batman, the 76ers’ French swingman Nicolas Batum.
Even though baseball is the dominant sport in Taiwan and its neighbors, basketball offers up interesting lessons in how sports diplomacy can be used to promote greater gender equality.
That’s a bit of a provocative question, but one that lent itself well to a workshop I co-directed with Dr. J Simon Rofe last week at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS University of London.
Hello there, and welcome! I’m glad you stopped by.
This space is designed as a general catch-all for my ideas and what inspires me across the international sports-, history-, and communications worlds.
Why focus on these three “hats”? Many people silo these off into individual industries. But in fact, from my professional experiences as well as what I’ve learned in the field, today’s sports, communications, and history worlds are in fact intricately intertwined.
Thanks to those who joined me in celebration of World Basketball Day by sharing their bon mots, questions, thoughts on the game’s global imprint, Basketball Empire, and so much more. Stepping back to look at the big picture, here are three key takeaways from the exercise
Today, the NBA sports a very international labor force but basketball was a global sport prior to 1992, with its own local indigenous cultures. So unlike other U.S.-affiliated sports leagues, the NBA was able to build upon long-established hoops cultures. As a result, basketball is uniquely primed for twenty-first century sports diplomacy. It can—and often does—lead the way thanks to several realities.
Ahead of the NBA Draft 2023, learn more about the intergenerational story told in Basketball Empire: France and the Making of a Global NBA and WNBA for, contrary to some media analysis, over the past 25+ years France has become a main pipeline for talent into the North American leagues. This didn’t happen overnight, nor is it a “new” phenomenon this year.
Earlier this month I had the honor to speak about basketball as part of a sports diplomacy panel at the “Using Sport as Diplomacy” conference, a two-day seminar rife with lessons learned from meeting and exchanging with international colleagues from Asia, North America, and Europe. Surprisingly, in a land where baseball reigns supreme, there were several unexpected sports diplomacy lessons through the basketball hoop.
There’s a lot to be excited for as we kickoff the new decade. I’m looking to 2020 as I continue to build out two key basketball stories of my own, but I also see 2020 as a break out year where many of the trends and movements in the global sports sphere finally bear fruit. Primarily, these are stories where cross-sport and cross-cultural influences—often influenced by different types of sports diplomacy—make all the difference.
