130 Years of Basketball as a Global Movement
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.
Beyond Your Wildest Hoop Dreams: Why the World’s First Born-Global Sport is Primed for Twenty-First Century Sports Diplomacy
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.
Field Notes from Taiwan and France: Spring 2023
This spring, I had the privilege to spend time in Taipei and Paris, two cosmopolitan capitals half a world away but in which the lessons from the court were bountiful. Here are three main lessons for sports marcomms and PR professionals to be better communicators to global audiences.
Peak Wembymania?
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.
A Global NBA
This year’s NBA Finals are underway, along with the end-of-season accolades, both of which sport a very global face for today’s NBA workforce is truly international. By January 2023, nearly one in three players were born outside of the United States. It’s a trend that accelerated significantly as the first generation inspired by the U.S. Dream team crafted careers in the NBA and showed kids back home how to spin hoop dreams into reality.
Through the Hoop: Lessons from Basketball Diplomacy
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.
Notes from Taiwan on Sports Diplomacy: Basketball Edition
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.
All the AI
The hot topic these days in the history, sports, and communications worlds pertains to integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in writing, but recall that communication—including the communication within sports diplomacy—centers around authenticity.
Why France Has Already Won this World Cup
France has already won at the FIFA World Cup, regardless of what happens on the pitch, for their deep run in this year's tournament reinforces the approach towards formation à la française, on producing the best quality players, not the most number of players, that has enabled this country of 67.5 million to dominate the football diplomacy stage.
Rivaux français
What are sports without a good rivalry? Given the relatively recent rise of professional women’s football—and the even later arrival of its mediatization—what are the roles that journalists, as well as scholars, play in making and preserving great rivalries in the women’s game?