Globalised Hoops: The NBA and International Relations

In January 2020, Paris hosted its first National Basketball Association (NBA) global game. A total of 120,000 people attempted to obtain tickets for the game held in a stadium of 16,000 seats only, hence showing French enthusiasm for the NBA. It was confirmed that the next regular-season game in Europe will be hosted in Paris again next year in 2021. Since 2011 and before Paris, London’s O2 Arena had regularly hosted the games.

IRIS: How is the culture of basketball – or of sports more broadly – in England compared to France? Why did the NBA first export its Global Games to London and then to Paris?

LINDSAY SARAH KRASNOFF: England has a vastly different basketball culture and history than France does. France was the first country in Europe to receive basketball, and the first game played on European soil was in December 1893 at the YMCA’s new Parisian outpost on the Rue de Trévise. While basketball found its way to England shortly thereafter, France is still what we think as of “ground zero” for European basketball in terms of being the oldest basketball culture. Importantly, in France, basketball has consistently been played by both men and women, boys and girls.
England does not have as strong of a basketball culture as France does today, because England is a football culture more than a basketball culture and has thus not invested as much in basketball as France. A lot of the commentary about France and sport more generally is that the country traditionally lacks a football culture in the way that England, Germany, or Italy enjoy. So, there are differences that help explain some cultural attitudes and disparities between basketball in France and England…