According to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), basketball has grown to a sport played by 450 million people worldwide. The NBA in the United States reigns supreme, and its popularity is evident in the fact that it is broadcast on TV in more than 200 countries and in over 40 languages. However, even with the global popularity of basketball, the environment and culture of basketball in each country varies. In this “GlobasketUnited” series, Mie Kajikawa, Founder and Representative Director of Next Big Pivot and FIBA Foundation Advisory Committee Member, visits Embassies of basketball countries in Tokyo to discover cultural background and popularity of baskteball of each country, as well as to listen to their opinions of the power of baskteball for social change, with the following four perspectives.
1st Quarter : Popularity of Basketball
2nd Quarter : Sports Policy
3rd Quarter : Power of Basketball for Social Good
4th Quarter : Views on Basketball in Japan
The first edition features the Philippines, the host country of the FIBA World Cup along with Japan and Indonesia in 2023. Basketball is the first team sport for which UN World Day was established, and the Philippines is the country that led the delegation for the UN resolution in establishing World Basketball Day (December 21), which was designated on the opening day of the FIBA World Cup.
“The Philippine Delegation to the United Nations was eager to take advantage of this landmark opportunity to prove once again that basketball plays an important role not only in the Philippines, but also worldwide. Indonesia, Peru, Nicaragua, and 77 other countries co-sponsored the World Day,” said Darrell Artates, First Secretary and Consul (Public Diplomacy and Economic) at the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Tokyo.
Basketball is the Most Popular Sport in the Philippines
1st Quarter: Basketball Popularity
ーーーMay I ask you about passion for basketball in your country?
The great thing about basketball is you can play it anywhere as long as you have a board in a sort of a metal ring that you can use as a basketball ring. You can set it up anywhere and you can play it no matter your age, your level of skill. It’s enjoyable for everyone regardless of your gender, regardless of your age, regardless of your status in life, rich or poor, you can play it.
So it’s universal in a society where it finds its roots of basketball in Philippines. And I think we have the greatest number of basketball courts per capita. We call our village “barangay”. In the center of that village is the barangay hall, and it always has a basketball court attached to it. It is as an assembly place. And there’s always a local grassroots basketball leagues. It could be a village one, it could be inter village and among cities.
Do you know the Philippine Basketball Association is the oldest professional league in Asia? It’s established in 1975 and it’s now the second oldest running professional basketball league in the world after the NBA. So that’s again an indication of how much basketball has really permeated Filipino society throughout the years ever since the Americans introduced it to our islands in the early 1900s.
And you know, in the Philippines we also use basketball courts as evacuation sites. There have been instances where during a natural disaster and people have to leave their homes and go to a safer place. Most of the basketball courts are especially those covered courts so they can be used for that purpose.
Covered Courts in Philippines c)Claudinn Ezra Galang
ーーーDid the FIBA World Cup last year also have a great resaction in the Philippines?
I think it was insane level of support that the host team got from the Filipino people. I think the number of people who watch the games at the arena such as the finals numbered more than 30,000 people. So one of the biggest crowds I think and FIBA1 has recognized that as well.
2nd Quarter : Sports Policy
ーーーDoes your country have any governmental institution focused on sports ? How do they promote sports for what purposes and any examples of their policies and activities?
Actually in Philippines, the promotion of sports is built in our constitution. So it’s a declaration of a state policy that the state will support and promote sports and sports education.
In 1990 we established the Philippine Sports Commission, which is the principal agency that is responsible for promoting sports in the grassroots. So this starts even in the schools. Basically the PSC’s task would be to ensure that sports are developed all throughout the country. It’s ingrained meaning and it’s part and integrated into the educational system as well.
So it works closely with our Department of Education and it has to maintain, first find connections and then maintain and sustain those connections with other stakeholders domestically and abroad in order to help the Philippines develop in its sports development program.
Then we have the Philippine Olympic Committee, which is autonomous and private and it’s the one that is responsible for choosing Filipino athletes to international competitions including the Olympics. But that also includes, for instance, the Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games and other international competitions.
Now as to the policies, so they have what they call “Palarng Pombansa”2 which is for I think under 16. Palarng Pombansa means national games. So throughout the different sports, students from all over the country would convene in one place as a host, someone will host it, a province or a city they will all come there and then they will compete with each other.
Sports is healthy and beneficial acitivities, and will promote phisical and mental health. So our government focuses on increasing the interest in sports among young people.
ーーーRegarding the budget allocation, do you think basketball can get more money than other sports?
I’ll have to check but I can I suppose yes, because we do have limited resources. So you have to prioritize. And in terms of the sports that gets the most support, I would say that basketball would be top. Boxing is another. Because of our Manny Pacquiao3, we already have talents and we have the sports that have great followings in the Philippines. And now I believe volleyball is also becoming popular.
Continued in Part 2
- FIBA：Fans also came in big numbers to watch the games, with over 700,665 attending during the course of the tournament including the record-breaking FIBA Basketball World Cup crowd of 38,115 at the Philippine Arena for the game between the co-hosts and the Dominican Republic ↩︎
- Palarong Pambansa: (Filipino for “National Games”) is an annual multi-sport event involving student-athletes from 17 regions of the Philippines. The event, started in 1948, is organized and governed by the Department of Education. It falls under Japan’s “National Athletic Meet” (commonly known as ‘Kokumin Sports Festival’). ↩︎
- Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao Sr. (born December 17, 1978) is a Filipino politician and former professional boxer, who has the most boxing world titles won in different weight divisions with eight and served as the Philippine delegation’s flag bearer of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony. ↩︎
