Olympic basketball 'hottest ticket in town': US faces formidable opponents as rest of world ups game
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00:00Well, to provide a fresh outlook on the sports at the Games, I now have the pleasure of welcoming
00:04on set Lindsay Krasnov, instructor at the New York University Tisch Institute of Global
00:09Sports and author of Basketball Empire, France and the Making of a Global NBA and WNBA.
00:17Thank you so much for joining us here on set.
00:20It's been quite a whirlwind of an Olympic Games, especially in basketball, which is
00:25your speciality.
00:26It is.
00:27And, I mean, there has to have been something which has caught your eye, just in terms of
00:33the United States is the big dog, but now all of a sudden you've got these other nations
00:39and possibly your dream of a global WNBA or NBA could actually be coming to life.
00:45Exactly.
00:46And I think that high level of competitiveness, the deep fields on both sides of the Olympic
00:51basketball tournament, particularly five by five, is what's helped to make basketball
00:56the hottest tickets in town.
00:57I should say town up in the north, because the first round of basketball has been played
01:02in Lille.
01:03I was there for the opening match Saturday, Australia versus Japan, I think, if memory
01:09serves.
01:10It's been a blur of basketball.
01:12And I was there yesterday for a day of women's basketball, including the big ticket France
01:17versus Nigeria.
01:19And I've been to a lot of NBA games.
01:22I've been to the NBA Paris game and, you know, good crowds.
01:26But wow, if when you have over 20,000 of your new favorite friends, all in one arena, really
01:31cheering for the home team for France, that was magic, eclectic, electric.
01:37And I can see very much how the basketball crowds have been helping egg on the teams.
01:43They're doing this not just for France, men and women, but for the US, for South Sudan,
01:47for many of the other teams there.
01:50And, you know, it's everyone's got a little bit of skin in the game.
01:53Yes, on paper, both the US teams look like they are likely contenders for gold.
01:59But, you know, there is such depth you don't know.
02:02I mean, we saw them being pushed just before the Olympics by South Sudan.
02:05Just it was one point LeBron James actually with the last gasp winner for the United States.
02:10And how lovely to see such a young country like South Sudan actually push them all the
02:15way.
02:16And that surely does give hope that the game can grow beyond the borders of the US.
02:20It's anyone's game, right?
02:22It's not that the United States got worse.
02:24It's that the rest of the world got better and particularly South Sudan, who do not have
02:28a single NBA player on their roster, although they do have a player who will be playing
02:34with Duke University this fall, to have that kind of super close win.
02:40But you know, for one last basket, they would have won that.
02:42That says a lot, not just for the country itself, and helps to instill a further sense
02:47of self-confidence on the world stage and also can confer a somewhat different sense
02:52of legitimacy than, say, participation in the United Nations or other more, quote unquote,
02:59weightier areas of international relations.
03:02Basketball has put South Sudan on the map and is also about what the country is able
03:07to give back and contribute to the world on the world stage, on one of the world's biggest
03:12stages at the Olympics.
03:14Nigeria on the women's side of the tournament doing something very similar.
03:18Their players were super strong and tough.
03:22Their fans, who were up in Lille yesterday, amazing and really helped to add to the excitement
03:27in the arena, which I've not witnessed for a women's sport.
03:33Especially beating Australia at their first victory in 20 years.
03:37Yeah, the whole thing, just eclectic.
03:40One imagines, as the tournament moves down to Paris, to Bercy next week, how that is
03:46going to help to add a little bit of a dimension to whoever is on the court.
03:53Just in terms of the club structure in the United States, which has made it such a success
03:57in the NBA, WNBA, how have you seen that replicated in Europe?
04:02Obviously, there's the EuroLeague basketball, but can this format be taken elsewhere?
04:09Should it be changed around?
04:12Is it something that can be a success outside of the United States?
04:16The youth pipelines in basketball particularly are right now under scrutiny on both sides
04:20of the Atlantic.
04:22One of the bigger conversations in and around the NBA this past season, as noted NBA coach
04:28Doc Rivers, was that more and more the European and African players who come into the league
04:34have the technicality, the teamwork, have all the right components that the US players,
04:40while they're super athletic and talented and gifted, don't have.
04:44Because in the US system, there's a focus on games and practices far fewer, whereas
04:50in Europe, it's quite different.
04:51There's very much that focus and emphasis on practicing six times a week and then playing
04:56a game on the seventh day.
04:59There's that different mindset.
05:01There's also the fact that European players have, in many cases, been playing pro since
05:05they were 16 as part of the pro club academy system that's formed some of the newest rookies
05:13in the NBA, Alex Tsar, Zachary Rezaker, T.J.
05:18Saloon, who was at the game yesterday in Lille to cheer on his big sister.
05:25It's a different kind of pipeline.
05:28You now have 19, 20-year-old European kids, teenagers, going into the NBA because they've
05:34learned the tactics, the technique, the teamwork.
05:38They focus on the physicality.
05:41They focus on the mental aspect once they get to the US.
05:44Like Victor Wan-Banyama from France.
05:45Yes, exactly like Victor Wan-Banyama.
05:48Well, Victor is an alien, as everyone refers to him himself as well.
05:53The alien emoji is his shorthand.
05:55A player who has already matured beyond his years before he made that transition.
06:00It would be fantastic to see all of these up-and-coming basketball players, of course,
06:05excel not only on the Olympic stage, but on the major club scene for the world basketball
06:11and to see that grow, of course.
06:13Lindsay, unfortunately, that's where we have to cut it in terms of the basketball.
06:16But once again, thank you for your insight.
06:19Very interesting.
06:20And enjoy the three-by-three basketball as well.
06:23It's going to be really a hoot here.
06:25Lindsay Krasnov there joining us from the New York University Sports Institute.
06:30Also an author on basketball, bringing the WNBA and NBA into the world.