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Sunday, March 8, 2009

Ramble On ... Basketball 24/7; Out of India and other assorted World Classic stories




The snow is melting and the driveway will be basketball ready this afternoon. Yes, spring is in the air in Boston. Here is the latest from Basketball 24/7 of the U.K., a site that quickly grew to be Britain's #1 basketball destination. A column by yours truly describes Friday night's Celtics game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Check it out by clicking here or cutting and pasting the line below in your browser:

http://www.basketball247.co.uk/features/archives/00000091.shtml

Quick... name the basketball hotbed.. Indiana or India?

The NBA continues to run the playbook on its global expansion plans. No, not franchises for international locales, just rock solid business plans that will include TV, merchandising, grassroots basketball efforts and some great PR.

Says a recent article with a NEW DEHLI dateline from the Business Standard of India:

NBA BETS BIG on INDIA:

NEW DEHLI -- Basketball is the second fastest growing sport in India

Popular American basketball league, the National Basketball Association (NBA), has embarked upon aggressive plans to promote the sport and subsequently increase its business in India. “NBA has a long-term plan for the development of basketball and its business in India. Despite the current economic challenges, it (NBA) has not changed its plans in India and continues to believe in the opportunity here. NBA is making long-term investments in resources, operations and programmes,” Akash Jain, director (international development — India), NBA, told Business Standard.

As part of its immediate plan, the association will open an office in the country that includes building a substantial on-field presence by developing management and functional expertise. It will also invest in bringing a variety of grassroot-level programmes, designed to develop the sport across all levels and showcase the lifestyle attributes of the NBA. “We took almost 30 years to build our business in China, which is now the second most significant market for the NBA after the US. We have a long-term view of the return on our investment in India,” said Jain.

“In the near term, we expect to see a steady improvement in the level of the game in India, both at the grassroots and elite levels.”

NBA will work with its current merchandising partners such as Adidas, Electronic Arts and Spalding in India to innovate and create products that will attract local consumers. “We are also seeking to develop alliances with new partners in order to increase our portfolio of products available in India and widen distribution of those products,” Jain said.

According to the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), basketball is the second fastest growing sport in the country with around four million participants.

Betting big on the game, NBA has rolled out the Junior NBA/Junior WNBA Hoop School Program, its first-ever grassroot-level programme for Indian youth between 8 and 16 years.

The five-week programme, which was announced in Delhi last month, is designed to promote education, basketball participation and a healthy lifestyle among children in India. Currently, it has coaching clinics in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

NBA will also use the internet and other media platforms to promote the brand, its teams and players, as well as its initiatives in the country. “As broadband penetration continues to increase in India, we believe the internet will provide an important platform in developing new fans for basketball and the NBA. Over half of NBA.com’s traffic today comes from outside the US, which highlights the importance of the digital media in increasing the reach of the NBA around the world,” Jain said.


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The NFL will counter the NBA's moves by sending cheerleaders over to India. Last year, the NFL ran a program that sent the Washington Redskins to Mumbai. Not sure the strategy is fully baked, as sending players and some grassroots community efforts seems to be the right move, not just a dance team.

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The World Baseball Classic is in its early innings. I like the concept a lot but it plays better at The BIG EGG in Japan and The Caribbean than it does on 161st Street and Jerome Ave or on Yawkey Way.

One of my all-time favorite newspaper columnists (and multi-media stars) Bob Ryan wrote this piece on Thursday for the Globe. Read it and think:

It's a classic case of little interest

By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist

The World Baseball Classic got underway today (Did any of you insomniacs happen to catch the 4:30 a.m. first pitch between Japan and China?), and I'm tempted to say, "What's the point?"

Naturally, I do know the point. But what kind of a "Classic" is this from our point of view when the United States outfield consists of Ryan Braun, Adam Dunn, Shane Victorino, and Curtis Granderson? And if Albert Pujols is the best player in the world, why isn't he suiting up for the Dominican Republic?

Insurance. That's why.

I'm all for international competition. You put a basketball team with "USA" on the front of the jersey and I'm there. It has been my astonishingly great privilege to have seen America's best perform in Barcelona, Toronto, Atlanta, Athens, Indianapolis, San Juan, Sydney, Tokyo, and Beijing, among other venues. Even better, from a competitive and emotional standpoint, are the fierce battles waged by countries other than the USA. Nationalism is a powerful force.

It is for the rest of the world, anyway. For whatever reason, Americans have become curiously unresponsive to the idea of international team competition. The idea that America has lost its primacy in the world of international basketball never had the resonance I thought it might. This is the game we invented (OK, Dr. James Naismith was a Canadian, but he came up with the basketball idea right here in the Springfield YMCA), but when Argentina started us on the downward slope with that defeat of the US team in the 2002 Worlds in Indianapolis, nobody outside of those directly involved seemed to care very much.

But the rest of the world took it very seriously.

The rest of the world takes all international competition very seriously. The World Cup is the biggest and most prestigious sporting event in the world. Olympics? Nah. They're nice, but for most of the world, they're a solid No. 2, and even then, we're talking strictly about the Summer Games. When you start talking Winter Olympics, you're writing off Africa, South America, and a huge chunk of Asia. Australia will give you a skier or two, and a couple of long-track speedskaters, but that's pretty much it.

The World Cup is a different matter. I guarantee you that despite all the sour economic news that dominates the conversation in every corner of the globe, when that Cup competition gets underway next year in South Africa, those countries fortunate enough to have qualified will be fixated on their national football teams as long as they are alive. Meanwhile, competition for one of those precious 32 spots galvanizes the population, even now.

The World Cup is one competition that works, simply because everyone concerned wants to make it work. Players routinely leave their club teams for national qualifying games, no questions asked. There are no conflicts with any national leagues once the Cup year rolls around. The Cup comes first.

So right away we have a problem with this World Baseball Classic. The timing stinks. Our teams are concerned with a proper preparation for the upcoming baseball season. The WBC is distasteful to our teams on more than one level. For one thing, there is the fear of injury. Secondly, there is the fear of injury. And then you always have the fear of injury.

Team USA manager Davey Johnson is boldly proclaiming his team to be the favorite, but within the American baseball world, his enthusiasm approximates the sound of one hand clapping because it is a given that most executives and managers in baseball hope the US gets eliminated quickly. Forget national pride. These people are far more concerned about themselves. They just want all their players back, healthy and ready to go.

I said the timing stinks, and it does, but when exactly would be a good time for the Americans? Can you imagine an NHL-like two- or three-week break in the middle of the season? I can't. Some people say it would be better to do this in some warm-weather spots at the end of our season. And what team would like its pitchers to participate then? So that will never happen.

There is a huge difference between basketball and hockey teams engaging in spirited international competition and baseball teams doing the same. Once you get beyond the general wear-and-tear factor, the huge difference is there is nothing in either winter sport that equates to a baseball pitcher. Goalie? You get two or even three quality goalies, alternate them, and it's no big deal.

Pitching is always a big deal.

In theory, a serious eight-team tournament featuring the US, Japan, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, South Korea, Puerto Rico, and Canada would be a very enticing spectacle. There are bragging rights at stake for each of those clubs. Six of those eight countries (I know Puerto Rico is an American commonwealth, but it's a distinct country in the world of international sport) contain the names of every active major award winner. Cuba's place on the world baseball stage has been firmly established. South Korea is an evolving baseball power that will prove to be a tough out in this tournament.

In some mythical proper time and place, with all the very best players involved, that would be a very worthy sporting exercise.

Instead, we have the WBC, which has been padded with no-hopers such as China, Italy, and South Africa to come up with the nice round number of 16. That would be like the NCAA Tournament filling out the final three at-large spots with club teams. So the WBC cannot be taken seriously on that basis alone.

But neither can it be taken seriously when so many of the best players aren't participating. We actually have a guy on the US pitching staff most average fans don't know. Quick. Joel Hanrahan. Who's he play for?

Answer: the Nationals.

Who are the best American-born closers? A short list would surely include Joe Nathan, Brad Lidge, and Jonathan Papelbon. Nathan was going to play, but he had to bail because of an injury, and the other two are tucked out of harm's way in their training camps.

I could go on. Once you get beyond Jake Peavy and Roy Oswalt, our starters are very uninspiring (Jeremy Guthrie, Ted Lilly). Roy Halladay? Cliff Lee? Josh Beckett? Unavailable.

Other teams have their own problems. I already mentioned Pujols. Venezuela can't get Johan Santana, which Hugo Chavez is probably blaming on the Americans. But seriously, folks, the whole thing is off the track.

But even if we did have optimum circumstances, and everyone did have its best players, the US included, I suspect the American sporting public would still be yawning. I don't know what it is, but we have become frighteningly insular.

Correct me if I'm wrong.


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I like the expanded sports section in the WSJ. Copy and paste this into your browser and check it out:

http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-sports-scores.html

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Gotta love Jay Wright and the Villanova Wildcats. This AP story ran after their 28th straight win at home this past week. "Nova will roll into MSG and the BIG EAST championship as the #11 team in the country, playing exceptional ball. Look out for "Nova.


VILLANOVA, Pa. -- Villanova coach Jay Wright started his walk-through with a pop quiz for senior forward Dwayne Anderson: What made Thursday night unique?

"Nothing," Anderson said. "Next game."

Nothing unique for these Wildcats? Hardly.

Scottie Reynolds scored 23 points to help No. 11 Villanova finish a perfect season at the Pavilion and earn a double-bye in the Big East tournament with a 97-80 victory over Providence.

Anderson's focused, robotic answer was exactly what Wright hoped to hear.

"We don't think about it, we don't talk about it," Wright said of the milestones. "We really worked hard at not thinking about it and we really count on the seniors for that."

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How cool is it to have a friend who works for the senior Senator from Hawaii, the third most senior member of the United States Senate? I am loyal to the State of Hawaii as its State office produced my wedding license on the Island of Kauai.
Good luck to Lori. We're happy for you and rooting for the Senator.

Daniel K. Inouye, the third most senior member of the U.S. Senate, is known for his distinguished record as a legislative leader, and as a World War II combat veteran who earned the nation's highest award for military valor, the Medal of Honor.

Although he was thrust into the limelight in the 1970s as a member of the Watergate Committee and in 1987 as Chairman of the Iran-Contra Committee, he has also quietly made his mark as a respected legislator able to work in a bipartisan fashion to enact meaningful legislation.


As Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Inouye has been able to focus on defense matters that strengthen national security, and enhance the quality of life for military personnel and their families. This reflects his hope for a more secure world, and his desire to provide the best possible assistance to the men and women who put their lives at risk to protect the United States.

Senator Inouye has also championed the interests of Hawaii's people throughout his career. He was instrumental in engineering the restoration and return of Kahoolawe, the island that had been used for target practice by the U.S. military, to the State of Hawaii. He continues to press for the passage of legislation that would establish a process by which Hawaii's indigenous people would be able to form their own sovereign government.

Senator Inouye also continues to push for improved education and healthcare for all children, additional jobs for Hawaii's economy, health and human services in rural communities, affordable housing, and the protection of the nation's natural resources. He was instrumental in setting the groundwork for the National Park Service's acquisition of approximately 115,000 acres of the Kahuku Ranch in Kau to expand the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The initiative is key to protecting rare and endangered bird and mammal species found in the varied habitats of Kahuku Ranch.

As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, Senator Inouye has been able to address important issues, such as aviation and maritime transportation, that are crucial for Hawaii, given its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is unable to depend on freight trucks and trains the way mainland states can, Senator Inouye notes.


Senator Inouye was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962 and is now serving his eighth consecutive term. When Hawaii became a state in 1959, he was elected the first Congressman from the new state, and was re-elected to a full term in 1960.

The son of Japanese immigrants, Dan Inouye was born and raised in Honolulu. Exactly three months after he had celebrated his 17th birthday, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Young Dan Inouye, who had medical aid training, rushed into service as the head of a first-aid litter team for his Honolulu neighborhood. He saw a "lot of blood." He did not go home for a week.

In March 1943, 18-year-old Dan Inouye, then a freshman in pre-medical studies at the University of Hawaii and long eager to join the U.S. war effort, enlisted in the U.S. Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the famed "Go for Broke" regiment of soldiers of Japanese ancestry.

Inouye was soon promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and was designated a combat platoon leader during the Italian campaign. He slogged through nearly three bloody months of the Rome Arno campaign with the U.S. Fifth Army.

In the fall of 1944, Inouye's unit was shifted to the French Vosges Mountains and spent two of the bloodiest weeks of the war rescuing a Texas battalion surrounded by German forces. The rescue of the "Lost Battalion" is listed in U.S. Army annals as one of the most significant military battles of the century. Inouye lost 10 pounds, became a platoon leader, and was awarded the Bronze Star and a battlefield commission as a Second Lieutenant, as he and other Japanese-Americans continued to fight with unmatched courage that would eventually result with the 442nd being the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service.


-TL-

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