L’Astroballe, Villeurbanne, 8 April 2013, 8 pm

Those lucky enough to have secured tickets through a well-known discount website must enter at Porte 5 of the Astroballe, perched on the edge of Lyon’s périphérique and home to Asvel, one of the traditional powerhouses of French basketball. As part of the online deal (twenty-nine euros for two places for two matches) the ticket-holder also has the choice of a Tony Parker/Asvel USB key or a Tony Parker/Asvel backpack, both emblazoned with the Asvel logo and Parker's famous number 9. A good deal certainly, except that Parker himself won't be playing or, indeed, anywhere nearby. Parker plays for the San Antonio Spurs in the American National Basketball Association and lives in Texas. His most significant daily presence in Villeurbanne is on the ubiquitous posters for the ‘Tony Burger’ at fast-food chain Quick (you can choose between the ‘Tony Burger raclette’ and the ‘Tony Burger au bleu’). Indeed, as spectators take their places for the game between Asvel and top-of-the-table Strasbourg at the Astroballe, nationwide radio station RMC is broadcasting the weekly show that Parker presents, in which he gives listeners insights into the glamorous world of basketball state-side.

Fear and fascination in the 51st state

Since the mid-1980s, basketball has evolved in France as a practice and spectacle in line with changes in the game in the United States, and particularly in the foremost professional league of the NBA (National Basketball Association). A pivotal period in these evolutions is the early 1990s, when clothing companies and the NBA attracted a new public to the sport in France. This had consequences for the demographics of basketball, the meanings associated with the sport, the style of play and ultimately for the game in America, as increasing numbers of non-American (and especially French) players came to populate the NBA. As a sport that originated in North America, basketball is a privileged site for the study of transatlantic sporting exchanges, French responses to the American-led commercialisation of sport and American-led globalisation more generally.

Basketball was first played in North America in the 1890s – a time when the majority of today's main team sports were being codified and organised on national and international bases. Its early popularity in the United States owes much to the support it received through the YMCA movement.