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.
There’s unsurprisingly lots of synergy between the two in that they both seek to communicate, represent, and negotiate as part of their core functions—even as their goals and objectives may be different. These threads are pulled together in my recent Sports Business Journal Daily op-ed, “Sports Diplomacy As An Engagement Tool.”
Four years of an ‘America First’ foreign policy has made ‘America Alone.’ There is a dire imperative to rebuild the United States’ reputation and role within the international community—and sports diplomacy can play a vitally important role providing comparatively easy, early wins...if done well with intention and thought.
The 2020 U.S. election will be historic for many reasons, including the unprecedented civic engagement by teams, leagues, and coaches—spearheaded by sportswomen and men of all ages. And I believe their calls urging community members and fans to educate themselves about the issues and to cast their ballots will play a role in voter turnout. There’s also an element of sports diplomacy in play as U.S. players communicate, represent, and negotiate this political activist culture with their foreign counterparts, who in turn may take up or re-engage in their own brand of civic engagement.
Sports diplomacy can be an important tool for any athlete’s toolbox. Its understandable that some international athletes may not feel comfortable speaking up about what’s going on in the host country where they play, for a variety of reasons. Yet, they can still contribute in impactful ways to the conversation—if they so wish—through the prism of sports diplomacy.
Today the Football Scholars Forum met with journalist James Montague to discuss his latest work, 1312: Among the Ultras, A journey with the world’s most extreme fans. The conversation (and book) was so enlightening because, as Montague noted, while there’s so much known about the game and culture of football, very little is known about the Ultras.
Yesterday the world’s most dominant football club returned to square-off against its biggest rival in a grinding match, delayed by a power outage but finally won at the nail-biting end on penalties. The footballeuses of Olympique Lyonnais (OL) Féminin clenched their ninth Coupe de France title, eeking past Paris Saint-Germain Féminine as the rain streamed down in Auxerre, and earning their 30th championship trophy, according to L’Équipe’s statisticians. But has the pandemic pause negatively impacted women’s football in France, stunting the momentum of last summer’s FIFA World Cup?
When we last saw the NBA in action 141 days ago on March 11, the international spotlight fell on Utah Jazz All-Star center, French international Rudy Gobert, whose positive coronavirus test result effectively shut down the league. Tonight is a very international restart. Eighty-nine players from 34 different countries will participate in the 22-team bubble in Orlando, and according to NBA International, some of the players have opted to wear social justice messages on their game jerseys in their native languages.
