National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Vince Carter's two-day visit to Taipei last week marked the second visit by active NBA players to Taiwan in the past two months, following Richard Jefferson, Luke Walton and Dwight Howard's visit to Taiwan in early-June.
Over 2,000 screaming fans gathered in downtown Taipei to witness one of the world's greatest slam dunkers showing jaw-dropping moves as part of a local three-on-three tournament that attracted local players from all age groups.
While enjoying the temporary frenzy that Carter has brought here, one cannot help but to think about the future of our own semi-professional basketball program -- the Super Basketball League (SBL), which will begin its third season in December.
PHOTO: PAUL HUANG
Will the league eventually achieve the same popularity as Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), or will it remain a "beefed-up" version of the High School Basketball League (HBL) and the University Basketball Association (UBA), which mostly attracts teenagers and college students?
For the SBL to sustain the long-term viability of the NBA or the CPBL, it must find a way to generate broader appeal across the nation.
The SBL can begin striving towards this goal by holding some of its competitions at venues away from its current single location -- the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium.
Although there are concerns about the added expense associated with moving games outside of Taipei, the added exposure of bringing the games to Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung should more than justify the added expenses.
To enhance the appeal of the SBL to a broader demographic range, the league can consider packaging its top players and obtaining celebrity endorsers that are associated with male and female professionals with purchasing power and more social-economic clout.
Holding inter-league competitions with its Filipino counterpart, the Philippines Basketball Association, could also add an international flavor to the league and perhaps attract the support of the 50,000-plus foreign residents that live in Taiwan.
The SBL must consider its long-term viability. There are undoubtedly many hurdles that need to be faced, but seeds planted now may very well bear fruit in the years to come.
Former NBA sensation Jeremy Lin, who recently announced he is joining the Kaohsiung Steelers in the P.League+, is to arrive in the country next week, the Taiwanese American wrote on Instagram yesterday. “I want to be very honest in telling everyone my plans because I don’t want any miscommunication. As of what I know, I will be flying to Taiwan next week, but I don’t know which day as I will need some time to meet my teammates, fit into the [team’s] system, and get prepared physically,” Lin said. Lin said he has not played an official basketball game for about two
Australian Open director Craig Tiley yesterday advised Novak Djokovic’s family to be “really careful” of people using the tournament’s global exposure as a platform for “disruptive” purposes. It follows a video posted on a pro-Russian YouTube account showing Djokovic’s father, Srdjan Djokovic, posing in Melbourne Park with a fan holding a Russian flag that featured the face of Vladimir Putin. It sparked a backlash from Ukraine and led to calls for Srdjan Djokovic to be banned from the tournament. He skipped his son’s semi-final victory on Friday, and it remains to be seen if he will be at today’s final. Tiley told the
More than two decades since their last FIFA World Cup triumph, and without a local consensus pick, Brazil are considering breaking an unwritten taboo: hiring a foreign coach. After six years in the job, Tite left the Brazil post last month following the Selecao’s World Cup quarter-final exit against Croatia. Despite knowing for some time before the Qatar showpiece that Tite was leaving, Brazilian Football Confederation president Ednaldo Rodrigues still has not found a replacement. Now he is widening his search. “We have no nationality prejudices,” he said on Tuesday last week. “We want it to be a respected coach who can bring a
A decade ago when the whippet-like Nairo Quintana burst onto the scene with stunning mountain escapes, Colombian cyclists looked poised to take over the world, but now the nation is in shock as three of its biggest stars flounder for very different reasons. At 32, Quintana is still Colombia’s most popular “beetle” — as its cyclists are known collectively — but he cannot even find a team. Egan Bernal, the only Colombian to win the Tour de France, is struggling to rediscover his former level after a near-fatal training crash, while Miguel Angel Lopez, nicknamed “Superman,” was kicked out of his team
RSS