In Which Countries, is Basketball the # 1, National Sport

[timosmooth]

yea i forgot Lithuania isn't big in football as they are in basketball..

i'd like to add china and puerto rico as possible countries, although puerto rico isn't really a nation, i think.

 

[TDW]

yea i forgot Lithuania isn't big in football as they are in basketball..

i'd like to add china and puerto rico as possible countries, although puerto rico isn't really a nation, i think.

Puerto Rico is a nation, but not a country.

But yes, Basketball is bigger than soccer in Puerto Rico. Basketball is the #1 sport here.

 

[timosmooth]

Puerto Rico is a nation, but not a country.

But yes, Basketball is bigger than soccer in Puerto Rico. Basketball is the #1 sport here.

Sorry,my mistake

I knew that Puerto Rico does have a football federation, but that's all I know about their football.

I know they are at least Top 15 or Top20 in Fiba Rankings.

 

[cscarlos]

This is the list for now:
USA
China
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
Puerto Rico
Angola
The Philippines
Lebanon
Canada

 

[sagenas]

In Turkey, wrestling, weightlifting and Volleyball might be more popular than Basketball.

RECAP:

Countries where Basketball is the #1 National Sport -

Philippines
Lithuania
Lebanon

Countries where its #2:

Puerto Rico (behind Boxing)
Estonia (behind Skiing)
Taiwan (behind Baseball)
USA (behind Football)
Serbia (behind Soccer)

In Estonia there's no 1st, 2nd or 3rd sport..many people do many sports .

Isn't basketball 1st-2nd sport in Slovenia? And China?

 

[cscarlos]

What about Taiwan ?

 

[UKO]

Isn't basketball 1st-2nd sport in Slovenia?

no, soccer first and handball second

 

[turk-jugoslav]

In Turkey, wrestling, weightlifting and Volleyball might be more popular than Basketball.

RECAP:

you are right but Football is the most poular sport in Turkey.after football,second most popular can be wrestling.Maybe 90 percent of Turks knows wrestling technically.Weightlifting was not so popular until the last of 80s but estimated 500 000 Turks catched away from Bulgaria after break of communism and came to Turkey.They made it popular.Bulgaria are still the best at weightlifting...
It can be funny for you but when I was in high school,my school had no basketball team but we had volleyball team and most of my friends would like to play volleyball.I think Volleyball will be second most popular sport in Turkey.

 

[Cibos]

Basketball is way more popular than hockey in Croatia,it's not even comparable.

Overall in country of course. But in Zagreb its a stretch. Medveščak averages 7800 people per game.. they sold out every single game in past 2 seasons.. and we're talking about ~ 60 home games here. Hockey season is longer than basketball one. They have more season ticket holders than Cibona, Zagreb and Cedevita usually have fans on their games.. combined.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYxUgucnRnQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XMJpHpQim8

Basketball clubs can unfortunately only dream about crowds that ice hockey gets But its clubs and federations own fault.. so i don't pitty them at all.

TV ratings are also in favor of ice hockey.. only Cedevita vs Estudiantes had higher ratings than any Medveščak game this season.

With Medveščak playing more and more games in Arena Zagreb and constantly selling out.. their average attendance will only rise. Even now they are 13th most attended club in Europe.

http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/...cle/swiss-nla-overtakes-sweden.html?tx_ttnews[backPid]=955&cHash=4f3f3c48a0

Ice hockey is in huge expansion here.. huge amounts of money are being pumped into it.. situation is similar to what handball was doing 20-30 years ago. Unless basketball federation and clubs step in and actually do something for promotion and development i could see ice hockey challenging basketball on state level in 10-15 years. Since pro hockey returned in this shape to Cro, hockey youth teams are full of kids... interest is huge among the kids.. on other hand Zagreb basketball teams do fu*k all to attract local kids to start playing it.. now 95% of Medveščak players are Canadians and Americans.. but as with years more and more Croatian players will appear that are able to play on pro level popularity will only grow. Especially with potential Medveščak -> KHL move that is being rumored around...

They have plans, they have funding and they do it for gain of the sport and not their personal one. Everything exactly opposite of what Croatian basketball is doing.

Basketball is in decline... people in federation think that they are god given experts and that they don't have to do absolutely to develop the sport further.

 

[Cibos]

no, soccer first and handball second

Domestic handball isn't that popular there really. European matches and national team yes.. but club league attendance and attention is nowhere near what basketball and ice hockey get.

I'd say football, basketball and icehockey/handball equally on 3rd position.

From individual sports its obviously winter sports..

 

[sinobball]

In Estonia there's no 1st, 2nd or 3rd sport..many people do many sports .

Isn't basketball 1st-2nd sport in Slovenia? And China?

In China, in terms of participation, well there's pingpong, badminton, jianzi (shuttlecock) that are probably more popular. (Almost half the Chinese girls know how to play one of these 3 sport while maybe 2% of girls have ever touched a basketball.) Volleyball and soccer also have many participants. And then anyone who had ever visited China will see people playing Xiangqi (Chinese chess), poker and mahjong on the street. In terms of TV exposure football (soccer) still dominates over basketball for inexplicable reason.

There're way too many sports, for example how do you compare poker and basketball? I think we need to confine the definition of "sport" to those
1. a team sport (but not something like bowling or golf, must have at least 3 players playing at the same time).
2. involving a ball or some object that is not a board/puzzle.

PS: Where does cock-fighting rank in Puerto Rico?

 

[sinobball]

What about Taiwan ?

Soccer pretty much has no following there.

In China I'd say participation of basketball is greater but TV still shows way too much soccer.

 

[Ciscorlie Horford]

well the US recognizes basketball more than soccer.

The Philippines may be the only country that like basketball more than soccer.

Maybe Angola? idk

The Dominican Republic Basketball is #2 and soccer does not even crack the top 10 in popularity, but now Soccer has been raising in popularity but is still only played among the rich kids or in the country side in certain touristic towns where there is a significant presence of Europeans.

I think in my country it would be like this:
1-baseball
2-Basketball
3- here it is possibly volleyball b/c it is the most popular among girls
then the other would be boxing, swimming, martial arts, track and field. in any order and then it will come Soccer.


I remember I read somewhere that we were the only country where either soccer was not in the top 10 or didn't have a professional league.

it is kind of weird because we used to be Spaniards back in the days and you would assumed that because soccer is so popular is Spain they would bring the love of the island after all most of the people who inhibited the island came directly from Spain. But that is not the case, maybe the reason is that once the People living here thought that Spain was taken advantage of them and also because Spain and started importing African slave here once Black people got equal rights, both the former Spanish as well as the Black people here try to distance themselves from anything that reminded them of Spain as much as possible, and possibly soccer was one of those things that they perceived as Spanish. But this is really just a guess


also for those of you who are saying Taiwan, baseball is king in Taiwan NOT baskeball


also is Belice Basketball is the most popular sport. and in Panama basketball is second only to baseball but in there Soccer is in fact a little popular too but not to the levels of basketball.
I know a bunch of other countries in the Caribbean where soccer is not the most popular sport or popualr at all but most of them don't play basketball or are not a country like US Virgin Island and Puerto Rico.

I also think that Basketball is slight more popualr than soccer in Venezuela, I think soccer is only the third most popular there after baseball and basketball, where soccer is eitehr at teh same level of Volleyball or evn lower.

 

[worldbasketball]

Lebanon hands down.

Lebanon has qualified to the World Basketball Championships three times in a row. Lebanon hasn't even come NEAR in football competition, as in near 1% LOL

 

[cardenales]

Puerto Rico is not a nation, because is not a republic, is just a colony from USA. Is a country but not a nation.

Congratulations to the Dominican Republic for not having Soccer in the top 10. Soccer is just a stupid sport. Basketball all the way and American Football of course.

By the way, thanks God in Puerto Rico, Basketball is first.

 

[mbenga]

it is kind of weird because we used to be Spaniards back in the days and you would assumed that because soccer is so popular is Spain they would bring the love of the island after all most of the people who inhibited the island came directly from Spain. But that is not the case, maybe the reason is that once the People living here thought that Spain was taken advantage of them and also because Spain and started importing African slave here once Black people got equal rights, both the former Spanish as well as the Black people here try to distance themselves from anything that reminded them of Spain as much as possible, and possibly soccer was one of those things that they perceived as Spanish. But this is really just a guess

Don't mean to interrupt your insightful reflection but soccer was invented like 2000 years after the Dominican Republic reached independence from Spain, maybe that's worth considering.

 

[Victorious]

There are many countries in which basketball is the second most popular sport.

Like:
Greece, Spain, Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Latvia, Argentina, Estonia, Dominican Republic and many others.

Also there are a great deal of countries where basketball is top 3.

On the other hand, there are only a handful of countries in which basketball is the most popular sport.

David Stern once said that basketball should target to become the second most popular sport in most countries. You can't beat football, but that doesn't mean you can't reign globally.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

There are many countries in which basketball is the second most popular sport.

Like:
Greece, Spain, Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Latvia, Argentina, Estonia, Dominican Republic and many others.

Also there are a great deal of countries where basketball is top 3.

On the other hand, there are only a handful of countries in which basketball is the most popular sport.

David Stern once said that basketball should target to become the second most popular sport in most countries. You can't beat football, but that doesn't mean you can't reign globally.

100% wrong. It's surely hockey after football. Basketball is not popular there at all. It could not even be top10.

 

[UMUT_FB_LAL]

I don't even want basketball to be the most popular sport, even though it's by far my favorite one

 

[durden_tyler]

the nth thread on this topic...

I was in China recently and I feel football is still having more TV exposure than basketball. This may be hard to believe considering China's 130th-place (or whatever, haven't checked in 10+ years) ranking in football, but it's true: CCTV has a CCTV-football channel now but no CCTV-basketball channel; and CCTV-5 (the "other" sports channel) still plays football like nonstop...

Also, in terms of participation, basketball is for sure more popular in cities due to overpopulation but football still champs in rural areas with no infrastructure to build courts. Then there are also ping-pong and badminton... but of course the national sport of China is

PS: this picture depicts someone die from over-playing while the others go on. Actually my grandfather had someone die in front of him on the Mahjong table. He stopped of course (and actually quit).

Nice pics Sino, the second image really captures their passion for mahjong.