As the NBA continues to forge new partnerships designed to expand their reach in the Far East, the sport has made two very important moves in North America to enhance the brand of basketball on the continent where it has its biggest presence. The first was in April, when the league announced a long-reaching plan with the NCAA to develop th.sport and find ways to market together, especially amongst the grassroots participant. The second (found via Terry Lyons blog), came up this past week in Canada, where the Raptors are looking to take a much larger stance i.working with the National Governing Body t. explore ways to grow the game by helping with the Canadian National team.The move makes great sense for a number of reasons. The Raptors, led by Bryan Colangelo, remain the only professional hoops show in Canada, and the sport, although never really gaining huge marketshare, has had individual success through the years. By helping install more nationalism and professionalism in evaluating talent, much like USA Basketball has done in this country, it gives the Raptors much more of an emotional stake in a country where sports have more tribal loyalties than in the United States.better branding, more attention for the NBA, and in turn greater business opportunities for the Raptors.SI's Austin Murphy did a great retrospective on Bull Durham on its 20th anniversary, and where those characters would be today…also waxing nostalgic about baseball was the New York Post's Phil Mushnick, who told the little known story anout the 50th anniversary of the last home run hit at Ebbetts Field…in a high school championship game, not by the Dodgers….on the recretional side, check out last week's WSJ.com for the piece on the bocce capital of America…and on the racing side, look for the NASCAR/F1 battle to heat up a bit, after Juan Pablo Montoya's comments in the Times of London today saying that F1 is boring compared to America's number one racin.sport..
