It’s been a tough week without that je ne sais quoi magic that the Paris 2024 Games conferred. here are a few things I’ll integrate into my global communications, sports diplomacy, and teaching work this fall.
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.
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.
That’s a bit of a provocative question, but one that lent itself well to a workshop I co-directed with Dr. J Simon Rofe last week at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS University of London.
Hello there, and welcome! I’m glad you stopped by.
This space is designed as a general catch-all for my ideas and what inspires me across the international sports-, history-, and communications worlds.
Why focus on these three “hats”? Many people silo these off into individual industries. But in fact, from my professional experiences as well as what I’ve learned in the field, today’s sports, communications, and history worlds are in fact intricately intertwined.
Last week’s “events” involving the NBA and China, ignited after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for the Hong Kong protestors, thrust basketball diplomacy onto center stage. But omitted in all of the coverage analysis is that no one should be surprised that the Chinese government would take a stand when politics and international basketball intersected.
The France World Cup 2019 kicked off with a dominant performance by the hosts, Les Bleues, a start to their campaign to extend the feel-good vibes from last summer’s victorious Russia World Cup 2018. And after a sprint to the airport, I was there among the more than 45,000 spectators at Parc de Princes to help launch the biggest event in women’s football.
