NBA: 5 Potential Impacts Of Global Basketball Academies
By Adam McGee
Greater Spread Of Global Talent
Slowly but surely, the NBA has seen a greater influx of international talent in recent years. Still, in spite of all of the Thon Makers and Sim Bhullars, the league has a long way to go if it wants to establish itself as a truly global organization.
More than any of the other traditional American “Big 4” sports, basketball has the most potential when it comes to looking to dominate the landscape of global sport. The rules and premise of the game are simple to understand, access to the sport is cheap and widely available and it’s compatible with all areas of the world, regardless of climate.
That’s a level of simplicity that gives basketball a real opportunity to permeate global sports culture at a similar level to what soccer has done so successfully, and in looking to build their own product the NBA also has an opening to be the driving force behind the game’s global development.
The Australian and European markets have been consistent providers of NBA talent for a number of years now, but in spite of colossal populations and a real thirst for the NBA product, key Asian markets have often gone untapped in terms of developing talent.
At present there can be no argument that the best players in the world come from the US, but in developing foreign markets, the NBA could nurture a more competitive balance in the future. At least in theory, that should lead to an even higher standard of play on the court and the league drawing even greater attention and revenue from all four corners of the globe.