The Golden Age of Basketball-Chapter 605 - 12 The New Season Begins
As the summer heat receded, the fourth quarter of 1989 arrived, signaling the final Chapter of the 20th century’s 1980s.
The shadow of the Cold War still loomed over the world throughout this decade, with the confrontation between the two superpower blocs being the main theme in global politics. However, in the late 80s, the Iron Curtain was loosening, and the thick ice was finally being broken.
While major powers maintained peaceful and stable development, conflicts continuously erupted in smaller countries, all under the influence of America and the Soviet Union.
Economically, conservatism and free-market economies dominated the landscape, and the fruits of the third technological revolution burst forth, ushering society into the age of electronic information.
In pop culture, television became the most important medium in social life. Pop music, gaming consoles, personal computers, sports broadcasts, movies, TV shows, and variety programs made people’s lives as colorful and diversified as their fashion.
With the development of media technology, many movies, TV series, film stars, singers, and sports celebrities all began to wield global influence.
Particularly, American pop culture, relying on its strong dissemination power and rich expressiveness, garnered a multitude of enthusiasts around the world.
Amid political confrontation, economic dissonance, and military tensions between the two superpower blocs, humanity’s innate longing for music, sports, and stories became the bridge connecting ordinary people.
The NBA rode the favorable winds of the 80s’ economic recovery, media technology boom, and the powerful exportation of American culture, augmented by a surge of outstanding players. It gradually broke free from being the bottom of the four major North American professional leagues and began challenging the MLB and NFL.
Compared to football, baseball, and hockey, the NBA had a unique advantage: the popularity of basketball far exceeded the other three sports.
American football is only liked by Americans, baseball is played only in a few countries like America and Japan, and hockey is limited to countries where ice and snow sports are popular.
Only basketball has a massive following in Europe, Africa, and Asia, second only to soccer in terms of global popularity. Curiously, Americans aren’t very fond of soccer, which is why basketball has the strongest global reach among the four leagues.
Even before David Stern took office, the NBA had begun to cultivate and develop overseas markets.
The Celtics in the 60s, Jabbar and Julius Erving in the 70s, had all visited Europe, China, and other places for promotional activities.
After David Stern became commissioner in the 80s, he made globalization one of the NBA’s core strategies for development, focusing on tapping into the markets of Europe, Asia, and Africa and attracting talented players from those regions.
Larry Fleisher made significant contributions to the globalization of the NBA before his death, and now his two sons have a rich network of player contacts in Europe.
The most direct way for the NBA to increase its influence was to send teams overseas to play games against local teams, giving local fans a taste of the strength of American teams. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
If you can’t even beat the local teams, naturally, nobody would want to watch your games. It was like sending a Pong team to China; that wasn’t for promotion but for learning.
In 1978, the NBA champion Washington Bullets undertook this task, with their first overseas stop being in Tel Aviv, Israel, where they edged out the Maccabi Team by a single point.
In 1979, the Bullets traveled to China’s capital and Shanghai, as well as Quezon City in the Philippines, to play exhibition games against the national team.
In 1982, Julius Erving "Doctor J" and the Philadelphia 76ers visited China, competing against the national team.
When David Stern became the commissioner in 1984, the scale of overseas games grew larger, with the Nets, Suns, and Supersonics playing a series of exhibition matches against local clubs in Germany, Switzerland, Israel, Italy, and other places.
In 1985, the Trail Blazers, Celtics, Bulls, and Lakers headed to multiple cities in China for exhibition games, a truly unprecedented event.
For two consecutive years, the NBA leveraged these tours to open and solidify its two largest markets outside North America, something the NFL and MLB found difficult to achieve.
In 1987, McDonald’s and the NBA collaborated to launch the McDonald’s Championship.
Although the first event was held in Milwaukee, the 1988 edition was chosen to take place in Europe.
This time, it was more than just a summer exhibition game; it was a more formal championship held during the preseason.
The Boston Celtics claimed the title in Madrid by defeating both the Yugoslavian national team and Real Madrid.
In 1989, the competition continued, with Rome, Italy, chosen as the location and the Portland Trail Blazers as the participating team from America.
(Commemorative badges from the two competitions)
The Trail Blazers arrived in Rome, Italy, ahead of time on October 18th, having undergone three days of team integration training in Portland prior to that.
This trip for the McDonald’s Championship was part of their preseason training camp.
The championship was a three-day event with four teams in two rounds of games. Besides the Trail Blazers, the participants included the ’89 Italian basketball league champions, Olympia Milan; the ’89 Spanish league champions, Barcelona; and the ’89 European Basketball Cup champions, Europe’s club kings from Yugoslavia, KK Split.
The matches began on October 20th at the Palalottomatica Arena in Rome, with the Portland Trail Blazers’ opening game against Barcelona.
On the day of the game, the arena was packed to capacity. For Italian fans, the allure of this championship was far too great to resist.
