By Joshua
Motenko
NBADraft.net
7/7/06
The
Global Impact
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Allen
Iverson |
While in the
streets of La Paz, Bolivia, a city 12,000 ft above sea level where
80% of the population is indigenous, I met a 70-year-old woman,
who happened to be an Allen Iverson fan. Speaking with her about
her love for the way Iverson plays basketball was an astounding
experience. She was mesmerized by his freelancing style of play,
saying she just "wanted to see what he would do next."
The significance of Iverson's creativity was not only revolutionizing
how the game was being played through his interpretation of the
crossover dribble, but was developing the game by grasping the attention
of people around the world.
Yet this woman's
recognition was exemplary of basketball's primary tension: the constant
conflict between individualism and collectivism, the push and pull
of the balanced team versus the will of the dominant superstar,
the philosophical dispute of any decade. While winning is usually
the product of team chemistry, the game has always made room for
individual excellence, and has multiplied its fan base at home and
abroad because of this dichotomy. From Mikan to Wilt, West, and
Kareem, to Dr. J, Bird and Magic, to Jordan, Shaq, and followed
by Wade and Lebron, the game has been steered into new states of
on-court evolution by its legendary individual performers. But its
these legendary players that seem to be basketball's vehicle for
globalization.
Whether it's
an elderly Iverson fan in Bolivia, an obscure Brian Scalabrine reference
in Belize, or the existence of full size courts in tiny Zapatista
villages in Mexico, the one constant throughout my trip has been
my repeated surprise at the reach of the game. Yet this emotion
"surprise" is exactly what is attracting the masses around
the world to our NBA superstars and the game they play. To measure
the global impact of basketball one has to look no further than
Michael Jordan's individual artistic expressionism with the ball,
and greatness as a member of a cohesive team unit, to see why the
sport has inspired millions of men and women around the world, not
just in Latin America.
Basketball has
unlimited potential for future growth on courts and in the cultures
of Latin America, where it is already spreading at an alarming rate.
The game is now being played in urban cities and towns, and increasingly
in rural areas throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and South
America without heed to racial orientation, economic and political
strife, or gender. Chances are if you give someone a basketball
in the most remote areas of Latin America, they will know what to
do with it. While that may seem like a trivial point as a measurement
of the globalization of the sport, it is a fact one would be foolish
to overlook.
Each country, in varying influences, is making its mark on the trajectory
of the global game. Each has its own interpretation of how basketball
should be played, and each translation changes the way the game
is played at home. Even if the country, like Belize for instance,
is only trying to mimic the style and feel of the NBA game, their
identity on the court is just that, their own. Each variation is
modification. Each Latino in the NBA is an idol to his people, because
each NBA game leaves children practicing what they just saw, oceans
away. Each ball bouncing is development, progress, the basketball
metastasis. Thus continues the globalization of the game.
Part 1
Part 2
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