Baskeball "World Cup" gets no respect

There's no competition.

On the other hand, people would care about a baseball World Cup, just as there were people (mostly those north of the border and in a few parts of Europe) who cared deeply about hockey in the Olympics; just as some people passionately follow the Rugby World Cup; just as the whole Subcontinent (and most of the West Indies + some otherplaces) will be in a frenzy when the Cricket World Cup is staged in South Africa in 2003.

 

I think too many Americans have trouble getting excited about events where they've never heard of any of the teams. Lakers, Kings, Celtics, they've heard of them. But what the hell is a Croatia or a Lithuania?? Must be minor league stuff.

 

It's called club versus country. For the American teams, "club" wins. Without the players from the NBA, the American "fan" could care less.

And don't be so parochial. The American basketball fan certainly knows all about Lithuania, Croatia, Spain, Brazil, etc.... Just because they don't care, it doesn't mean they don't know. The NBA and NHL are huge international melting pots, and part of the coverage involves large numbers of bios on the foreign players and their backgrounds.

 

there is a huge difference between the world cup and these basketball championships. many teams could win the world cup, as we saw with korea, usa, senegal, and turkey. brazil won and they werent supposed to and germany werent supposed to go that far. it was interesting and exciting tourney.

for basketball only one team can win, usa. the only guessing is by how many points we win by. and image the slaughterings we would hand out if we sent our a-team: iverson, kobe, garnett, duncun, shaq.

 

It's not 1992 anymore. The US would likely win, but funny things happen, and the NBA is an equal opportunity employer. People forget just how many foreign stars there are in the NBA. There are some pretty good teams out there, capable of beating the US players in "any given game", but certainly not "very often".

 

I don't really follow basketball, but it seems idiotic to me that the NBA doesn't embrace this World Basketball championship. It doesn't matter that we would likely win. Our presence would be of great interest to world fans and would help increase the popularity of the sport. That would translate fairly quickly into higher NBA revenues.

 

Ben, the reason why I don't think that the NBA has jumped at it is because the players and managers are against it. For one, the NBA season is just way too long. With summer workouts and training camp starting soon, many players get off for June and August only, and people on the NBA Championship Series teams get off the month of August only. I'm sure most of those players would like a break.

Additionally the players that would be involved make on average like what $7-10M/year each? That's a big investment for a team to risk when they could get injured or fatigued for the regular season. I'm sure a lot of owners would rather just let their guy rest and come back happy than be forced to play and risk injury or being a malcontent.

 

AndyMead I have read many of your posts in the past and I've come to one conclusion. You have absolutely no ************ing clue. No other sport remotely compares to soccer in the world. 2 major countries play baseball add Cuba and the Dominican Rep and you have 4. 4 countries that could be considered baseball playing countries. There is one major basketball playing country, the United States. There is no competition. There are no qualifiers for the hockey world cup, know why? Only a dozen countries play hockey and only because there is too much snow and Ice on the ground to play soccer year round. No other sport comes close and deserves comparison to soccer. Tennis, tennis is the only sport remotely close and it's an individual sport. Its not that American fans are club oriented more than nationalistic. Our sports are uniquely American and the average joe sports fan is incredibly ignorant and lives his life within a few blocks. NBA players come from around the world simply because there aren't that many people that are 7 feet tall.

 

You've just proven beyond any doubt, reasonable or otherwise, that you're the hopelessly ignorant one. For the sake of humanity, please never discuss this matter again.

 

There are enough players that we could find some stars willing to play. We wouldn't need to force anyone. As for the "investment" aspect, I would argue that the benefits far, far outweigh the costs. Sadly, we Americans are often very short-term oriented in business matters. A real basketball World Cup is tens of millions worth of free advertising for the NBA. This club-country conflict is ultimately a false one. Balanced properly, the riches can increase far beyond any short term costs.

 

If your Phil Jackson do you want Kobe Bryant to play in this? What if he blows his knee out and misses the season. Good bye NBA Championship. I would like this tourney to be taken more seriously but I understand why it is not.

 

Then why do players play in the World Cup? I understand that potential stardom in the World Cup is worth a lot more than at the World Basketball Championships. Still, all star soccer players should have tremendous desire to play for their country, which I don't exactly see our basketball players exhibit.

I just don't think that our major sport athletes grow up wishing to represent their country in the sport (rather representing the home town). Even in tennis, we probably have the most no-shows at the Davis Cup.

What's even more surprsiing is that these World Championships are being held in the heart of US Basketball - Indiana.

 

Yes there is!!

-Richard

 

Not helping...

If the US does really well in this tournament, I could see a nice bump in NBA attendance next season.

 

I don't believe that it is necessarily a lack of desire on the players parts, as much as it is pressure applied to them by their bosses. Even internationals are feeling the brunt of mark cubans latest decree that he doesnt wish any of his international players to play for fear of injury w/out adequate injury insurance.

And as for the guys who are going I find it rather sad that all the coverage I seem to see says more about who is not going to play, than the guys who are going to play for the u.s. If you take a look at the roster it is a fair assemblage of talented players, and while its not 92 the talent that is there is a far cry from sending a squad of college amateurs. Not only that but Reggie Miller and Jermaine O'neal are both members of the pacers (who play in the city that the games are being hosted in for those of you who dont follow basketball) so I think fan turnout will be just fine and I think there will certainly be alot more highlights of the championships on sportscenter than we get of mls... which is a shame

 

??

what if zidane and figo blow their knees?
do you really think there is a difference?
nowitzki for example definetly wants to play for his country.
the only reason there is no respect is because baketball is not a world sport. nothing on this earth is popular like soccer.

here is my world sport ranking:
1. soccer
2. nothing
3. nothing
4. formula one
5. american football
6. basketball
7. tennis
8. baseball

 

Actually, from what I understand, in most of the "other" countries in the world (the ones where soccer is the number one sport), basketball is a clear #2. All over Europe it's very, very popular and many of the leagues do quite well with fans. The European basketball championships are quite a big thing. It's American football and baseball that are barely blips.

 

Basketball, hockey and baseball club owners in North America look at FIFA's powers in accrediting players and forcing release of players called up for national teams and say "We won't ever let that happen with our sports."
You're more likely to see meaningful "world cup" competitions once North American leagues set up European or South American counterparts. If these owners set themselves up as their own FIFA and control everything then you might see more emphasis on national teams, though clubs will come first.

 

But if you're David Stern and you want to sell NBA TV rights overseas and keep the flow of jerseys going into foreign countries, you might be willing to take that risk.

There's the dichotomy. And that's why the USAB tries to put together teams with recognizeable names, but holding back many of the superstars who might go and do bad PR for the league because they don't want to go.

 

That is the reality that USA SPORT MEDIA ......

That is the reality that USA SPORT MEDIA and the naysayers refuse to accept, SOCCER is the only sport that is play on the planet, SOCCER have outsold all sports combine together on th OLYMPIC GAMES

 

I personally will be watching because basektball still remains my favorite sport.

I like the World Basketball Championships and the Olympics precisely becaue I get to see players I've never seen before.

ticket sales are goig to suffer in Indianapolis precisely because the big name stars aren't going to be playing. Instead you have guys like Ben Wallace who is a hard worker but has limited talent.

Injuries also are playing a role as Ray Allen of the Bucks won't be playing due to a bad knee.

Still I look forward to the games to see just how far the rest of the world has come.

 

Re: Basketball "World Cup" gets no respect

There are a few reasons the Basketball World Championships do not interest me:

1. The Summer Olympics already serve as a Basketball World Championship. It occurs every four years just like the World Cup.
2. Don't see a need to empower FIBA as another international sports body. FIFA and IOC are more than enough.

Just because some group wants to throw an event together and label it a world championship doesn't obligate us to take it seriously. I would prefer the US not field a team at all rather than send a B or C team, but I guess the NBA wants to take advantage of whatever international marketing benefit is available.

 

1. You really don't help yourself make a point by attacking someone like that. Knock it off, please.

2. You really don't help yourself make a point when you are horribly uninformed. For the record, there were 16 teams in the medal phase of the World Ice Hockey Championships this year.

In 2003, there will again be 16 medal teams. But there also will be 24 other teams playing in qualifying tournaments to try and advance to the 2004 championships.

See, hockey does a really cool thing where two tournaments take place at once. They have the top 16 teams in the medal round, but a few of them (I forget how many) play relegation games if they finish near the bottom in the worlds.

At the same time, there are promotion playoffs which take place between teams from that group of 24 (they include countries such as Luxumborg, New Zealand and Mexico.

I may be a little wrong on some of the details, but there are qualifiers. And the IIHF Web site listed 50 countries with national championship hockey leagues last year.

As far as baseball world play goes, you say only two major countries play it? Would that be the US, France, Italy, Korea, Japan, Canada, Russia, Holland or Australia? Admittedly, the level of competition is not the greatest, but the US went to the 2001 worlds with a team that included a couple of ex-major leaguers and a bunch of AAA and AA guys and went 5-2 in pool play before eventually finishing second.

What does this have to do with soccer? Not much except that soccer fans really need to open their eyes some times, do a little research before they open their virtual mouths and quit attacking other sports, especially since, as a group, soccer fans seem to have pretty thin skin whenever anyone dares to not bow down to soccer.

It's a big world out there. There's plenty of room for everyone to play.

 

Most of you discuss these issues as if the sporting leagues and organizations sprang out of the ether, fully formed, ten years ago.

If you understand the history of sporting leagues and federations, most of today's events makes sense. Soccer was always controlled by the iron grip of the governing bodies. American sports were always controlled by the iron grip of team owners. Team owners want to control their players.

These days top stars are paid outlandish sums by their clubs in all sports, and they do know where the gravy train is. You do see more and more international soccer stars turning down national team call ups. You see the new class of European soccer team owners beginning to rebel against FIFA and UEFA.

The FIFA World Cup is big because it always has been. The basketball, hockey, and baseball World Cups are far less significant because they have never had any control over the dominant providers of talent, namely the American sports leagues.