Next Big Pivot, driving ”Basketball for Good” movement in Japan, announced World Basketball Day project this year, following the establishment of the UN day last year1, to promote the power of basketball that is globally influencial and its social value, as well as to provide more people with opportunities to utilize the power of basketball2.
This is the report of the “World Basketball Day 30 Days-to-Go Webinar” that we held on November 22, as “Tip-off” of this year’s World Basketball Day raise-awareness campaign, joined by globally recognlized movement leaders and practitioners with the over 100 registrants from all over the world, including Middle East and Africa, in addition to Europe and Americas.
＜ Overview ＞
Date：Novermber 22, 2024 (Fri.)
Time：20h00 - 21h45 (JST)
Language：Japanese/ English
Organizer: Next Big Pivot
The guest speakers for this inaugural webinar in Japan included the advocator of World Basketball Day, Professor David Hollander of NYU and the Senior Manager of FIBA Foundation, as well as Co-Executive Director and youth leader of globally recognilzed NGO, being joined by Japanese high school students who collaborated with Next Big Pivot for the basketball event for Embassies to talk about updates its preparation.
They spoke about the power of basketball for social change from their own perspectives, and passionately delivered their presentations based on their experieinces on the ground.
Message from World Basketball Day Advocator
The inaugural webinar started with the message from the World Basketball Day advocator Professor Hollander of NYU, who detailed the background and behind-the-scene stories of World Basketball Day establishment, as well as the overview of his book『How Basketball Can Save The World』. He closed with his encouraging message for basketball fans in Japan, mentioning “Japan is a leader in 21st Centry basketball.”
Following up his message, Next Big Pivot Founder Mie Kajikawa, who serves as Advisor to FIBA Foundation together with Professor Hollander and interviewed him prior to this webinar, added notes on the epoch-making event, includng the significance and mission of “World Basketball Day,” which is not known enough yet in Japan, with introduction of the roundtable that was held on last year’s World Basketball Day at the United Nations New York Headquarteres titled “Basketball and Peace.”
Keynote：Most-Updated “Basketball for Good” Movement in the World by FIBA Foundation
As the Keynote, FIBA Foundation Senior Manager Theren (TJ) Bullock delivered comprehensive presentation titled “Using the Power of Basketball to Initiate Positive Change,” with best practices by FIBA Foundation including the details of their mindset and impact of their projects.
FIBA Foundation is “the social and legacy arm of FIBA that addresses the role of basketball in society, preserving and promoting basketball’s values and its cultural heritage.” and it was established in 2016. The three categories they focus on are: Mini Basketball, Youth Leadership, and Community Impact, and they published their first Impact Report last year. It was precious opportunity for us to learn about various best practices in the world, utilizing the power of basketball with “3.3 billion” fans globally in order to deliver social impact.
The presentation was closed with the introduction of FIBA Photo Contest with this year’s theme of ”Emotions,” which is due on December 21, the World Basketball Day, and with the Propose a Project that provides financial support for non-profits that are making a difference utilizing the power of basketball. We hope to have some applications from Japan as well!
Short-presentation by High School Students: “Power of Basketball to Unite World”
Following the Keynote, two Japanese high school students joined to update their progress on the preparations of “Tokyo Embassies United” basketball event, for which they work with Next Big Pivot. The “Tokyo Embassies United” event is a part of World Basketball Day Project by Next Big Pivot, and they passionately deleivered their speech, mentioning that they realized the power of basketball with this experience.
Their powerful speech was followed by the special Q&A session with Mr. Bullok of FIBA Foundation, and their questions were about the potential of the power of basketball, his career aspiration to work with FIBA, and who is his favoirte NBA players, and those pure and student-like questions made the session meaningful discussion.
NGO Session：PeacePlayers International
The last session welcomed a globally recognzied award-winning NGO PeacePlayers International, with Sally Nnamani, Co-Executive Director of PeacePlayers International United States, and Sizwe Blose, PeacePlayers South Africa Alumni.
PeacePlayers International started in 2001 in Ireland, and they provide leadership trainings through basketball clinick mainly to young people in conflict areas. They have reached out to about 75,000 young people in 15 countries, with US branch being developped with the supporet by Nike.
“Even if the war ended, it does not bring about peace on the spot to the lives of local people.”
So true, and all the stories shared about their activities for “conflict transformation” (They use this word instead of “conflict resolution”) and to tackle on dispartiy of access to sports realized us the social value of basketball and its potencial.
One of the program alumni Sizwe talked about how his participation in PeacePlayers’ program changed his life, from his own experience.
Editor’s note:
Thank you so much to all the speakers and participants who made this inaugural World Basketball Day webinar in Japan happen.
We received many positive responses not only from Japanese audience, but also from global communities, and we will share the recording until this year’s World Basketball Day, December 21. We hope more people can join our webinar, and the celebration of World Basketball Day this year, and for years to come!
▽Register here to watch the recording (Available until December 21, 2024JST）
https://sportsresponsibility.thinkific.com/collections/worldbasketballday
World Basketball Day Project in Japan has just started, and we will do our best towards this year’s World Basketball Day, December 21. Thank you in advance for your continuing support, and Happy World Basketball Day!
