POSTED: September 15th 2010

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JOHN GOODBODY: Basketball needs to phase out the fatigue factor

 THE JOHN GOODBODY COLUMN / An authoritative and exclusive series from Sports Features Communications

LONDON, Sep 15: There can be little argument that basketball is the world’s second most popular team game, albeit a very, very long away behind association football.

Although cricket generates huge interest in the Indian sub-continent,  it does not have the large number of countries, who participate at a decent standard internationally, as basketball certainly does. That makes the disappointment of the recent world basketball championship all the more depressing.

Some 24 nations, out of the 213 (yes, 213) affiliated to the international federation ( FIBA), qualified for the event in Turkey; there were some desperately close matches and good crowds but many of the leading players were missing.

These were not only from the eventual winners, the United States, whose public regards the world championship with indifference compared to the interest generated in the club matches  in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Stars such as Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James were among the absent Americans but so were some brilliant foreign players in the NBA, who could have represented their native country in the event. Examples are Yao Ming of China, Emanuel Ginobili of Argentina, Russian Andrei Kirilenko and Frenchmen Tony Parker, Ronny Turiaf and Joakim Noah.

Many of them had, in fact, featured in the original publicity for the championship in Turkey, only for their names to disappear as it became clear that, one by one, they would not be there.

Some may well have had valid excuses, such as injuries, fatherhood, marriage or even tiredness. However, the fact  that so many of these reasons occurred at the same time was surely not a coincidence.

Their absence seriously devalued the importance of the tournament, supposedly the second most important international competition after the Olympic Games. Those television companies broadcasting the event must have felt let down – and with justification.

Implied reluctance

The problem is clear. Most of the world’s best players took part in the NBA competition earlier this year, in which they might have participated in up to 82 games. Understandably they are tired.

As Dave Stern, the NBA head, said: "It is too much to ask a leading player to take part in a full season with his club and that this is followed afterwards by another tournament.”

The clubs are often paying their players more than  $10m a year and, although they are not necessarily refusing to allow them the opportunity to take part in the world championship, there is an implied, and to a certain extent understandable, reluctance for them to be enthusiastic about an international event.

Clubs are not being financially compensated  and the players themselves recognise the lack of enthusiasm by their clubs. They also don’t want to risk injury.

However, this is  shortsighted. If the NBA and the players are to increase their revenue, one way is to spread basketball internationally. If the players were to take part in the world championship, the international television interest would grow and those countries screening the tournament, might then be showing more of the NBA games because their viewers would recognise them.

Sponsors, too, would like a greater global reach for NBA matches.

Yvan Mainini, the incoming FIBA president, believes a shorter world championship might help attract more of the stars. However, the key thing is to get the support of the NBA and its clubs.

Basketball, like all sports, needs to continue growing. And one way is to give support to the world championship, otherwise it may begin to stagnate.

** JOHN GOODBODY covered the 2008 Olympics for The Sunday Times, his 11th successive Summer Games and is the author of the audio book A History of the Olympics, read by Barry Davies, the BBC commentator. He was Sports News Correspondent of The Times 1986-2007, for whom he received journalistic awards in all three decades on the paper, including Sports Reporter of The Year in 2001

Keywords · John Goodbody · basketball · NBA · FIBA

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