How Basketball and the Internet Shrunk the World for This Coach

The Internet changed the world. It is no longer up for debate. There is no going back. When people see therapists to cure them of their computer addictions, you know the Internet Age has arrived.

The Internet changed my world, in a big way, with an assist from basketball. Or, vice versa. I suppose basketball changed my world with an assist from the Internet. 

Today, I spent much of the morning emailing with a basketball coach in Iran about my book and youth basketball development (I hope divulging this information publicly does not lead to an invasion of privacy). Yes, while the US and Iranian governments squabble over wars, nuclear weapons and other big picture issues, I make friends with different people from different cultures in the name of basketball via the Internet.

Before college, I spent a year as an exchange student in Sweden. This was before I had heard of the Internet. I lived in a town that for some reason had a large percentage of immigrants and several very good pizza restaurants. I played on the club team in town and eventually coached a youth team. Nobody wanted to coach this team because it was primarily immigrants and most of the Swedes were still getting used to the influx of Bosnians, Croats, Serbs, Iranians, Syrians, Poles and others moving into the town.

I became friends with one of the kids and we'd walk home from practice. He was from Sarajevo. He wanted desperately to go back. He talked of his youth basketball team and how good they were and how they were now scattered all over the world or missing. He explained the conflict, which I then watched on CNN at my host family's house. Somehow, despite the conflict at home, our team had Bosnian, Serb and Croat players and we never really had any problems on the court. Basketball brought everyone together and the older kids who spoke English a little bit better helped me translate to the other kids who were busy learning Swedish, let alone English.