Basketball+MC

Future of Basketball in East Asia

Introduction
Basketball. What is it? Is it a sport? Can it be a religion, or a philosophy? A hobby? Basketball is a team play sport that could be played almost anywhere if you have a hoop and a backboard. It is played by a team of 5 in official settings, but 3 on 3, even 1 on 1 is possible in this sport. Although it is simply shooting a ball to put in through a hoop, it is now one of world’s most popular, widely viewed and played sport. Almost all countries, especially Europe and America is widely known for their popularity of basketball and the high class of leagues they have. The word “basketball” usually reminds people of african american or caucasian american people, not quite asian people. However, people in Asia, especially Korean and Chinese people do enjoy basketball. These asian nations might not have a lengthy history or high level of play like wester nations do, but the fact that there are people who are passionate about basketball is the same. Even though it started off from a single college, it soon gained popularity and became an Olympic sport, creating words like “Dream Team”.

Basic Information
Basketball was first created by a P.E. teacher who developed an activity to keep his students active during rainy days in a gym. He simply nailed a basket on a wall 10 feet (3.05m) high and wrote down some basic rules. The ball was very different from what we have now; it had an asymmetrical shape, limiting a player’s movement with the ball. Thus, passing became the primary component in this game. Later, these baskets were replaced by metal hoops and a backboard was added. Then, the hoop became narrower, making the ball merely pass through. As time passed and basket ball gained more recognition, it was dispatched by the YMCA, and was spread throughout the nation. Soon, many colleges and high schools started to create clubs and teams to play this sport. In the 1970s, NBA was finally established as the independent top league in the USA. As basketball first started in the US, NBA is currently the top league in the world in means of talent, salary, popularity and level of play. The NBA has produced multiple star athletes, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’neal and Karl Malone. However, the three athletes that took this sport to a whole another level of popularity and competition were Larry Bird, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, and Michael Jordan. In Asia, basketball was introduced very late compared to the time when Europeans were introduced to it. Thus, the skill level of Asian players were far behind other nations and they still are. Also, because the physical attributes such as height and muscle strength play a big role in competitive basketball, Asian players were inferior to Western players in the sport itself. Nowadays, many Asian nations such as Iran, China, Lebanon and Korea have developed methods to play a competitive game against Europeans. And some of these leading nations in East Asia would be China, South Korea and Japan (Wikipedia).

Korean Basketball

Chinese Basketball

Japanese Basketball

Sources:
"정통 포인트가드가 점점 줄어들고있는 한국 농구의 문제점." 군기반장 사순이. 8 Nov. 2008. Web. 8 June 2011. <[|__http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=618zzang__]>. "[스포츠]한국 프로 농구의 문제점과 대처방안." //Happy Campus//. 24 Oct. 2006. Web. 8 June 2011. <[|__http://mybox.happycampus.com/nwave21/1717728__]>. 미?곰댕이*. "일본 농구." //Daum// 지식. Daum, 13 Nov. 2006. Web. 9 June 2011. <[|__http://k.daum.net/qna/view.html?qid=34mDF__]>. "Basketball in China: A Short History - Hoopedia." //Main Page - Hoopedia//. Web. 8 June 2011. <[|__http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?title=Basketball_in_China:_A_Short_History__]>. "Basketball." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 8 June 2011. <[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball__]>. Bou, Fay, Sarah Guo, David Chen, Frank Han, and Mark Liao. "Beyond Yao: The Future of Chinese Basketball." //Knowledge@Wharton//. 26 Jan. 2011. Web. 9 June 2011. <[|__http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2689__]>. Hays, Jeffrey. "Basketball in China: A Short History - Hoopedia." //Facts and Details//. 2008. Web. 8 June 2011. <[|__http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=277&catid=12&subcatid=78__]>. Keena. "Korean Basketball!!!!!" //Keena's Crusade//. Blogspot.com, 26 Feb. 2008. Web. 8 June 2011. <[|__http://keenascrusade.blogspot.com/2008/02/korean-basketball.html__]>. Nix161. "한국농구의역사." //Daum// 지식. 23 Sept. 2008. Web. 8 June 2011. <[|__http://k.daum.net/qna/openknowledge/view.html?qid=3db3K__]>. Odeven, Ed. "JBA's Archaic Ways Suffocating Basketball's Development in Japan." //The Japan Times Online//. The Japan times, 15 Mar. 2009. Web. 8 June 2011. <[|__http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sp20090315eo.html__]>. "Success of South Koreas National Basketball Team." //Basketball Tips for All the Lovers of the Greatest Game of All//. Best-basketball-tips.com. Web. 8 June 2011. <[|__http://www.best-basketball-tips.com/korean-basketball.html__]>.

**Asian Studies Final Project Self-Evaluation** 1. What did you contribute specifically to your project?

I invested a lot of time and effort on this whole project. I have been playing basketball for more than 5 years, and this would be considered a compilation of my knowledge in basketball in East Asia. I am actually proud of what I wrote.

2. How successful do you think you conveyed your research to your audience?

I think my wikipage is quite informative and I successfully delivered my research to the audience. Although readers who do not have much knowledge in basketball might find it boring, I believe it contains immense amount of information along with my opinion. I have been following the NBA, the KBL, international tournaments as well as the CBA; I think I know enough to state my own opinion regarding basketball in this region.

3. What would have made your presentation more successful?

If I had the chance to interview some of professional basketball players, I think it would have been great. I thought of actually visiting games and filming certain plays to explain it on my own, but I figured that I do not have the time to do so as we were in our finals.

4. How successful do you think your technology-based materials were in conveying your research?

I have added photos and certain videos to help the audience understand what I am saying as well as to get the feel of the level of play the three countries show. As I mentioned in the previous question, if I was able to insert an actual interview or clips of games and my explanation, I believe my opinion and information would have been conveyed more efficiently. Instead of using loads of photos, I decided to concentrate more on writing down the facts and the opinions as I believed simple basketball photos will not do the job of explaining the problems each country’s league has.

5. What would have made your technology-based materials more successful?

If the pictures were mine, or if I made a slideshow of photos, the quality of the project might have been different. However, I could not find the “right” photos that were capable of portraying the problems in Korea or Japan or China. Thus, I decided to spend more time on my writings. Also, I should have planned out my time better so that I could have thought of better technology-based materials to include in my project.

6. What did you learn from this project? Submit any other comments after this question.

Although I considered myself to have abundant knowledge about basketball in Asia, the research gave me much more. Not only I learned about the history of basketball in Asia, but also I was given the opportunity to analyze the problems and solutions each country possess. As I am a Korean citizen, I am most interested in KBL, thus analyzing KBL and Korea’s problems with basketball was an exciting opportunity for me. Even though it was a graded project, it was one of the few projects I did that I was able to really enjoy working on it, as it was my favorite topic to discuss. If I get a chance, I would even like to write a paper regarding KBL. Also, I was able to day dream about myself being a player; all the thoughts that I had during the projects were so much fun for me. And as I researched about the conditions our youth players are, I am quite glad that I play at KIS because our facilities are good, as well as the fact that I do not have to stress so much about the standings. I think this truly was a chance for me to think deeply about basketball, and a chance to realize how much I love basketball. Thank you for letting us to actually “dig” into what we truly enjoy.