The exercise is easy. Go to a Parisian playground, these outdoor basketball courts, and ask the players who sweat there about the weekend game. With rare exceptions, not one will be able to tell you which opponent Paris Basketball, club of the capital playing in Pro B (the second division), faces this weekend. If they have ever heard of this newly created club …
However, none will have missed the weekend game. The truth. The one who makes the stars shine in their eyes: Friday, January 24, at 9 pm, the Milwaukee Bucks will face the Charlotte Hornets within the confines of the AccorHotels Arena. Nothing less than the first regular season game in the history of the North American basketball league played in France.
In France, as in the rest of the world, NBA and basketball seem to be interchangeable. "The sun never sets on the NBA", smiles the boss of the American championship, Adam Silver, paraphrasing his predecessor, David Stern.
After this match in Paris – an experience which will be repeated next year -, the NBA will launch a league in Africa, while continuing to establish itself in India and China – notably by setting up training centers. With one goal: that basketball catch up with football, the number one sport in the world, both in practice and in audience. Which would not harm the business of the league, because what is good for basketball benefits the NBA.
A long way has already been covered. Apart from the NBA, which can boast of encouraging more than 140,000 people to register in a few hours to try to win one of the 16,000 sesames to attend a regular season game, without major sporting issues? The Rolling Stones, if they were playing basketball.
Spreading the word abroad
Rock star, the "Dream team" of the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 was. And by insisting that NBA players take part in the Olympic tournament – until then, the United States sent a team of university players -, David Stern has worked for the development of basketball on the planet. While serving that of his league.
"The NBA is never just sport, but it is never business either", exposes Adam Silver. A private company brewing billions of dollars (8 billion in revenue last year, 7.2 billion euros), the NBA is not a philanthropic federation dedicated solely to the development of its sport. That doesn't stop him from wanting to see as many people playing basketball as possible.
