The 2023 Men’s World Basketball Championships have not yet started and the success of the event already seems assured. For good reason: the competition, which takes place from August 25 to September 10, is organized in Jakarta, Okinawa (Japan) and Manila, where the passion for the big orange ball has continued to grow in recent years.
In Indonesia, a movement still in motion
Indonesia, where the Blues will evolve, is perhaps the least “basketophile” of the three destinations. Certainly, this sport – which would have been imported by Chinese migrants in the 1920s – is indeed one of the most popular, behind football. But professionalism did not impose itself there until late, in the 2000s. At the international level, the country especially shone at the Southeast Asian Games, which it won on several occasions.
The national team will not take part in the Worlds. To hope to compete in the prestigious competition, the Timnas had to qualify for the quarter-finals of the 2022 Asian Cup. After a promising start to the campaign marked by a big victory over Saudi Arabia, things got tough with two defeats against Australia and Jordan. Then China showered all Indonesian hopes, inflicting a stinging setback to the Indonesians: 108-58.
There is no question of giving in to defeatism. “Every big goal starts with a small step, then reminded the Serbian coach Milos Pejic. Indonesian basketball is only at the beginning of what we want to achieve. We want to go much further. »
“We want Okinawa to become synonymous with basketball”
The Japanese team will be part of the tournament in Okinawa, in the far south of the country. The island of the same name has been home to more than 70% of US bases in Japan since World War II. And US soldiers have played a key role in spreading the sport. The island of Okinawa today has the highest concentration of basketball players in the Japanese archipelago, with 997 players per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, and outdoor courts are scattered all over the territory.
The World Cup matches will be held at the Okinawa Arena, a 10,000-seat stadium inaugurated in 2021 opposite the American base in Kadena, home of the Ryukyu Golden Kings team, which won its first World Cup title in May. Japan. For Nobutoshi Higoshi, president of the departmental federation, global competition “comes at the right time” : “We want Okinawa to become synonymous with basketball. »
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