FIBA 2006
This month (August 2006) is an exciting month for me because this is when the FIBA World Championships starts! The International Basketball Federation or FIBA is, according to wikipedia.org, “an association of national organizations which governs international competition in basketball.” FIBA stands for the French words, Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur. Although Amateur was taken out of the official name, the organization decided to keep the French acronym as FIBA. The tournaments occur every four years, during the same year as the World Cup.
The team to beat is, of course, Team USA. Unlike the national team in 2002 FIBA World Championships and 2004 Olympics, which finished sixth place and third place, respectively, they have made the necessary adjustments to improve their chances to win this month. The US national team in the recent past had players with great individual talents but had no team chemistry and minimal practice time together. The result was a team of selfish millionaires bickering about their playing time and about who gets to shoot the ball. With the rise of basketball talent worldwide, the United States have realized they cannot expect to win in international competition without changing their approach. Therefore, the new director of USA basketball and the coach made the emphasis of the current team to play unselfishly and cohesively. The players were chosen not only for their basketball skills, but also for how well they could fit in the team. Also, ample time was given for the team to practice together and build relationships with one another. The outcome is a 5 - 0 record in their exhibition games with 4 blowouts.
And speaking of basketball in Japan, I am reminded of how basketball became popular in Japan more than ten years ago through one manga. That manga was popular abroad as well, especially in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. And because of its popularity in Asia, it also became popular among Asian Americans too. When I was in high school, this manga was a big part of why I started liking basketball. It’s too bad basketball is not so popular in Japan anymore. I hope the FIBA World Championship will generate more interest in basketball.