Jason Richardson at an NBA clinic in Jakarta Indonesia
Basketball is thriving in traditional territories from the USA to Eastern Europe. But an initiative from the NBA is working to take basketball to new places – and make it part of the daily routine for millions more people. NBA Asia managing director Scott Levy talks to Homecourt about the way basketball is being used to enrich the lives of young kids right across South-East Asia.
This feature comes courtesy of Homecourt – a digital basketball publication with a unique perspective on the culture of basketball and the way it enriches lives, right across the world. More info at Homecourtmag.com
By now, we all know the Philippines is a uniquely basketball-crazy country. The flip flop leagues, the rustic courts surrounded by coconut palms and coastal breezes, and the world-famous Tenements. The frenzied fandom isn’t news to any of us but, when Filipino 7-footer Kai Sotto officially signed to the NBA G League, the basketball world was put on alert. South-East Asia was making moves. What’s even more surprising is that it isn’t just the Philippines anymore; the whole region is adopting basketball as a favoured pastime.
Like the English Premier League, the NBA has become richer for its global expansion. Players from all corners of the world have found success in the league, in turn increasing interest, viewership and participation in their home countries. In the 2000s, Australia has become a new breeding ground for NBA and WNBA talent but, Kai Sotto aside, the rest of the Asia-Pacific region still represents a great opportunity for talent development and grass-roots participation.
Australia, home to Ben Simmons, Liz Cambage, Lauren Jackson and more, is a unique case. From a young age, kids have access to facilities and coaching that many other countries in the Asia Pacific region simply don’t have. NBA Asia, based in Hong Kong but active right across the region, are working to change that with the Jr. NBA Program.
NBA Asia Executive Vice President and Managing Director Scott Levy explains that the program isn’t necessarily designed to breed the NBA stars of tomorrow, but to improve and enrich the lives of young kids across Asia through the game of basketball.
“The goal of the program is to engage youth and teach them that sport is an important part of their life, and it can help them, whether they want to achieve at a high level for their local basketball team, or national team, or even the NBA,” Levy explains. “But they can also apply what they learn at home or in school, work and throughout their lives. The end goal is to help to develop young people into strong, active, healthy adults.”
In the space of approximately five years, the Jr. NBA program has put basketballs in the hands of 24 million kids – basically the entire population of Australia – across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
The first glimpse of success came in Indonesia, where government representatives recognised the value of the program and worked with NBA Asia to incorporate Jr. NBA into the school curriculum across elementary, middle, and high schools. Now, kids experience basketball, run drills, and learn the program’s unique STAR values – Sportsmanship, Teamwork, A positive attitude, Respect – on a regular basis.
“Once Indonesia came on board it was very soon after that that the Thailand Government started to embrace us as well,” says Levy. “Now Vietnam and Malaysia similarly have embraced the program.” NBA Asia has now partnered with 38 government entities around the region. There has been much progress in only five short years. NBA Asia have secured government support and provided equipment to millions, but they recognise the success of the program hinges on the quality of coaching.
“Jr. NBA is developed based on the local needs in each country,” Levy explains. “So, for South-East Asia, there’s limited access to equipment, there’s limited training; how to coach, how to engage kids so that they enjoy sport. One of the first things we’ve had to do was to train the trainers, and make sure that when kids were experiencing sport, they were having fun.”
“The teachers that we’re teaching are history teachers, math teachers, they’re not coaches. They’re the ones that are doing the physical education programs in these schools so we wanna make sure that when we get down there, they have the tools to actually teach basketball as opposed to just throw the kids a ball and say ‘go do this’.
“We’re trying to build an ecosystem by training trainers. We’ve trained more than 72,000 teachers from 53,000 schools across 50 cities. The way that we build that ecosystem is that local coaches train local coaches that train local coaches.”