This past 25th August, during a session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Philippines brought forward a U.N. Resolution co-sponsored by over seventy nations, adopted by consensus. The initiative designates every 21st December as World Basketball Day—notably, the day one James Naismith first introduced the game in Springfield, Massachusetts, 132 years ago. The concept of World Basketball Day was initially sparked by NYU Professor David Hollander, who advanced it in his recent illuminating book How Basketball Can Save The World (2023). Crucially, portions of the original proposal laced into his publication are included in the final resolution adopted earlier in the year.

Over the summer, Prof Hollander collaborated with the Philippines to bring the petition to life, a country with a deep, symbiotic, and remarkable passion for basketball. The Southeast Asian country happened to be co-hosting the exciting 2023 FIBA World Cup—starting on the same day as the resolution’s adoption, later conquered by underdog Germany. Additionally, the longtime advocacy efforts of Hollander’s namesake NYU university class played another pivotal role; over multiple months he and his students engaged with international ministers and stakeholders, urging them to bring forth this proposal. Fast forward to late summer, and basketball is the first team sport ever to obtain an official U.N. international day recognized. Such a historic decision not only reflects the global significance and impact of the game, but also its power to unite people worldwide.

In the resolution that passed the new observance, the U.N. General Assembly commended Indonesia, Japan, and of course the Philippines for hosting this year’s World Cup, and explicitly encouraged relevant authorities to exert every effort to ensure the tournament leave a lasting legacy for peace and development around the world. Simultaneously, it also instigated everyone, everywhere, to play, watch, read, discuss or otherwise connect to basketball game—a connection to each other everywhere. To coincide with the celebration of the first ever World Basketball Day on 21st December, the Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the U.N.—in collaboration with the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame—organized a roundtable discussion focused on basketball and peace, featuring none other than Julius “Dr. J” Erving,  basketball’s original skywalker.

As the inaugural World Basketball Day was observed and celebrated last week, it invited everyone everywhere to play, watch, read, discuss or otherwise connect to the game. Luckily, Memphis Grizzlies’s phenom Ja Morant just got reinstated into the NBA after a long suspension, so that should help glue even more people to screens the world over. Moreover, the premiere US league’s first ever In-Season Tournament made its thrilling and defiant debut earlier this fall, witnessing a hard knock yet obstinate Los Angeles Lakers bring home the coveted trophy in December. These platforms and many more mark a connection to each other everywhere, affirming a global common oneness that is set to push us toward the idea of one world, united, to do the things only one world can do. Starting with basketball, the one thing we all seem to do.

In present times, basketball has grown to become one of the most popular and widely played sports in the world. FIBA estimates that almost half a billion people worldwide are playing basketball every day. In the hundred and thirty-plus years since it was invented, governments and nation states have risen and fallen, wars have been won and lost, borders drawn and redrawn, ideologies proven and disproven, corporations have formed and dissolved, trends come and gone. Yet basketball has consistently grown. In a world shaped by fictitious borders, there are so many challenges that require stateless solutions—climate, intellectual property, bioengineering, diseases, hunger, water—tenets that affect everyone, everywhere. Where does one begin? Where can we all come together? What’s one thing everyone everywhere is onboard with? Basketball.

For Dr James Naismith, the Canadian physical education instructor who created basketball to keep rowdy students active during the winter months back in 1891, always meant the game to be universal. For all of us, everywhere, from its inception. He created a single discipline that was stateless—suited to any and all people, anywhere, anytime—with basic core principles that fostered cooperation, ease of play, spatial intimacy, self-governance, and even a kind of freedom. Today, there is arguably no social, cultural, or athletic institution that matches basketball in ubiquity and influence. Just stop in your tracks and take a look around at fashion, sneakers, music, as well as vernacular.

Earmarking World Basketball Day, Prof Hollander outlined five simple and concrete ways through which people can honor the event globally (see below). Ranging from encouraging the youth to pick up a basketball and start kicking it, to experiencing the game first-hand, the barrier-less approachability of the discipline highlights its grassroots simplicity. It’s no wonder so many people are taking to it on a daily basis. Whether that’s attending team practices, official matches, or merely heading to the nearest court in search for a pick up game, basketball acts as a lowest common denominator across countries, languages, ethnic groups, and cultures. It’s only right we all take a moment to celebrate it—unbeknownst to most, we’ve been doing so for over a century.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time. And happy belated birthday, Basketball, this time around.

AV