Word: sternly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...commissioner David Stern has already executed a beautiful pivot move into China, where, thanks in part to Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, hoops is hotter than Sichuan cooking. There's still work to be done in Europe, even though it is now a source of many NBA players, including seven Frenchmen and six Slovenes. Before the season, the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns played exhibition games in Germany, a challenging NBA country, as part of a four-team, five-country full-court press of Europe -Italy, Spain, France and Russia were also hosts of training camps and games...
...there's a new frontier that the commissioner finds riveting. "You must think I'm nuts," Stern says, "because we're also spending a fair amount of time scoping out India...
...Despite India's stunning market potential, Stern knows that it is no layup and, as a sports market, may be among the least global. First, he is up against wicket competition, firmly planted in the country's psyche. "Cricket is our religion," says Harish Sharma, secretary-general of India's national basketball federation, of India's premier pastime. "Basketball is just another sport." In India, even soccer pales by comparison with cricket...
...build interest in basketball, Stern is starting at the grass-roots level. "We have the potential, and we have the ability," says K.K. Chansoria, head coach of India's men's and women's basketball teams. "What we lack is the infrastructure." China had seven-footers wandering the countryside and a government so dedicated to hoops it put backboards in most cities. In India, basketball facilities are sparse and mostly substandard. India's national women's team often practices on a cracked concrete court, adjacent to a scrubby field, in New Delhi. The government places less emphasis on sports growth...
...Stern remains realistic about his Indian experiment. "With [India's] middle class and some focus on the world's games, basketball is starting to get a little interest and a little traction," he insists. "So we have to be respectful and realize it's going to be small steps up." Given the NBA's global track record, its Indian steps could end up looking like Garnett. Bigger, and quicker, than you think...