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Basketball Grobalization Analysis

Decent Essays

This article depicted the evolution of Israeli basketball as a case of great controversy between grobalization and glocalization processes. Eran Shor and Yair Galily discuss how, from the 1960s and through the decades, Israeli basketball got entirely dominated by, not only American athletes, but also American values and principles. In fact, “instead of the traditional English influenced values, emphasizing the importance of participation, fair play, and amateurism, teams and players began to adopt the American ideology which stressed victory above all” (Shor and Galily 531). Furthermore, unlike other European countries such as France, Russia and Spain, where the local language is the prominent language used for the sport, in Israel, players …show more content…

For instance, foreign players allowed to play on the Israeli team increased slowly, but surely. This number went from only two players to four in the mid-2000s, and finally to as many as the team wishes as long as there are always two Israeli players on the court at all time. This case is a great example of American dominant grobalization and the local glocalization resistance. “This Jewish-Black binary serves as a clear example of the tension between the grobal and the glocal discourses” (Shor and Galily, 539). In fact, Israel even adopted Americanized stereotypes of African-American (black) people. For instance, local medias often portrayed Black players as “submissive, childlike, impulsive, and unintelligent” (Shor and Galily 539). Finally, by comparing Israeli to English basketball we can point out some intriguing differences that help us understand why it seems that Israeli has shown much more resistance. We can comprehend with this analysis that people in a society like to live with and be represented by people that they can associate themselves with. For them, the less different, the better. In fact, by comparison, Americanization in English basketball is much easier than in Israeli since Americans and English at least “share a language [and] a religious background” (Shor and Galily

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