Sports can divide. Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees, the New Zealand All Blacks versus the South Africa Springboks, or Manchester United versus Liverpool – all passionate sports rivalries with the capacity to turn friend into foe at the mere mention of the “wrong” team.  But sports can also unite. At the U.S. Department of State, we harness the near universal passion for sports as a way to transcend differences in language, culture, and socioeconomic status and bring people together. 

Through our Sports Envoys program, we call upon a cadre of U.S. professional and collegiate athletes and coaches to travel around the world to lead programs developed in partnership with U.S. embassies and consulates. We send non-elite athletes and coaches to the United States for two-week exchanges through our Sports Visitors program. And we use sports to help underserved youth around the world develop leadership skills and achieve academic success through our International Sports Programming Initiative.

We recognize the power of sports on an international stage. We are pleased to see that the National Basketball Association (NBA) does as well. 

The NBA is a professional basketball league established in the United States in 1949 after the merger of the National Basketball League and the American Basketball Association. At the time of the NBA’s founding, all of its players came from within the United States. Now, more than a quarter of its players come from outside the United States.

As the number of international players has increased, so have the NBA’s efforts to reach beyond the United States.Through its social responsibility program, NBA Cares, the league operates a basketball development and community outreach program called Basketball without Borders and brings U.S. competition to international audiences through NBA Global Games. More recently, the NBA has launched two programs right here in Madagascar: Jr. NBA and the Basketball Africa League (BAL).

Jr. NBA is the league’s youth program, which seeks to “develop a lifelong passion for the game in boys and girls...while instilling core values including teamwork, respect, and sportsmanship.” (Source: https://jr.nba.com/jr-nba-faq/). The Jr. NBA boasts more than a dozen international programs in sub-Saharan Africa, including one right here in Madagascar.

In November 2019, NBA officials, alongside U.S. Ambassador Michael Pelletier and Malagasy Minister of Sport and Youth Tinoka Raharoarilala, launched Jr. NBA Madagascar in collaboration with the Malagasy Basketball Federation. Jr. NBA Madagascar brought together 30 boys’ teams and 20 girls’ teams from public and private high schools alike for four months of basketball training and competition. Players ranged in age from 13 – 16 years-old.  The global COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately cut the competition short, but the plan is to continue the program for at least another three years.

 The Jr. NBA program brought together 30 boys’ teams and 20 girls’ teams from schools across the capital region including (at left) a game between CEG Andoharanofotsy and Mary Mpanampy and (at right) @Miora Reazhel for Sekolintsika Analamahintsy.

 Led by Tsimbina Andrianaivo, an alumnus of U.S. universities Waldorf College and Hamline University, Jr. NBA Madagascar also made an important decision to not only focus on sports education, but to also integrate the innovative More Than Basketball curriculum, which includes English language, life skills, and leadership training into Jr. NBA Madagascar’s program.

This May, the NBA also partnered with the International Basketball Federation to debut BAL, the NBA’s first collaborative effort to operate a professional basketball league outside of North America.  Madagascar’s own Gendarmerie Nationale Basket Club (GNBC) was one of only 12 teams from across the African continent to qualify to compete in the inaugural BAL championship tournament by winning its region in the Road to BAL qualifying rounds.  Formed in 2012, GNBC was the youngest of all the teams competing in the BAL championship.  Ultimately, Egypt’s Zamalek took the crown as BAL’s first-ever champions, while GNBC ended the tournament fourth in its group.  The Road to BAL 2022 has already begun, and a Malagasy team has again earned a spot.  The ASCUT (Association Sportive de la Commune Urbaine de Toamasina) basketball club qualified to represent Madagascar in the second Road to BAL qualifying tournament by winning national and regional competitions.  The Road to BAL will culminate next year in the 2022 BAL final championship tournament of twelve teams.  Good luck ASCUT!  

Linkages between the Madagascar and the NBA could strengthen even further on July 29 when Malagasy player Sitraka Raharimanantoanina participates alongside 353 other players from all over the world in the 2021 NBA draft, potentially leading to him joining the roster of an NBA team. 

All of these initiatives should give Malagasy sports fans pride in the fact that the NBA sees Madagascar’s basketball potential and is investing its resources here in Malagasy basketball and Malagasy youth.  They also point to exciting possibilities for leveraging sport’s unifying power to build stronger bonds of friendship, teamwork, and mutual understanding between the United States and Madagascar. 

By Tsimbina Andrianaivo, National Coordinator, Jr. NBA and Ryan Bradeen, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Embassy in Madagascar and Comoros