How Does Baseball Affect The Globalization Of Basketball

For many years, when thinking about sports in the United States, the first sports that came to people’s minds were football and baseball. Thus, forgetting about the sport hidden by their shadows, basketball. Only until recently, and to the surprise of many, did that start to change. Basketball has now become the fastest growing sport in the United States and the second fastest growing major sport in the world, trailing only soccer (SAP, 2013). Since basketball has not been as popular as football and baseball for a long time, it has been hard for American’s to truly understand the global impact that is created through basketball. The main way American’s get an idea of international basketball is through the international players in the NBA.

Providing many around the world with new ideas and knowledge of the sport. However, not only does globalization of the sport create that newfound knowledge and participation. It can change various aspects of life by reaching across all parts of the region. Creating certain issues or trends that can be noticed in other regions that are experiencing similar globalization in sport. One positive trend that is easy to notice from the NBA from a business standpoint consists of them putting more time and investments in those regions to help produce even more talent from there. Africa is the prime example of these investments as the NBA has been hosting “Basketball Without Borders” camps across Africa since 2003, providing education and training opportunities to the younger generations. In 2014, they partnered up with USAID to create a program called “Live, Learn and Play” to help youth throughout Senegal use the values and skills developed in basketball, such as leadership development and teamwork, to promote youth engagement and citizenship development (USGLC, 2022). And lastly, the NBA creating their first league outside the United States. This league is called the Basketball Africa League (BAL) and was founded February 16, 2019. With this, the NBA is helping to build stadiums, train coaches and referees, hiring stadium staff, and all other things ranging from

There are still some issues that can occur because of it. Two issues that come with the globalization of basketball is that in Africa, not many people can afford to play basketball and the number of playable courts and rims are limited. Most African families cannot afford the sneakers and basketballs required for their children to play the game. This is an issue if the goal is to help expand basketball for obvious reasons. To intertwine basketball into other cultures, it is essential for the people to be able to participate and add it into their daily lives. But the lack of ability to participate has been an on-going issue for years and has been an issue that has stopped globalization attempts in the past. According to the Human Capital Hub, as of March 2022 exchange rates, “the average monthly pay in Africa is around 758 USD. This is roughly ten times lower than typical incomes in the United States and the United Kingdom” (Human Capital Hub, 2023). With the average income being so low, it is clear why African households are having difficulty being able to purchase the equipment necessary and could lead to parents discouraging children to deter them from wanting to participate. The other issue is that there is a low number of playable courts in Africa, which makes it hard to participate and help spread the game because