A study on the Portuguese League of Basketball — Part 1
The other examples
Portugal is a football (or soccer) country. There’s no getting around it. It’s a traditional thing. According to PORDATA, 28.4% of Portugal’s federated athletes in 2018 were footballers. That’s more than double the athletes in Portugal’s 2nd sport — swimming — who totaled 13.4% of all federated athletes. To put it into context, the next four sports in the top 5 in the country (swimming, handball, volleyball and basketball) constitute 33.5% of all federated athletes. A mere 5% more than football, in four different sports.
This is really no surprise to anyone. Football occupies a lot of TV hours and is a great source of revenue to the country. This translates into better conditions for football teams, more investment and may be the greatest reason why a country with only 11 million people can produce 3 different Ballon d’Or winners. This is not because people here are born with “football genes”, but because there’s a larger pool to choose from and earlier initiation/specialization of athletes. The same investment and interest in any other sport would produce around the same number of elite athletes.
So, other sports have been living with what they have. Basically, a lot of rejects from football arrive to other sports as pre-teens or teens, having lost hours of early specialization, which is sometimes key into becoming elite in some sports.
Basketball is one of those sports. Young players arrive late, many of them after realizing they do not possess the potential to become a football player. These kids (and their parents) don’t usually see basketball in their future. It’s a way of continuing to stay active, but usually not as a career path. Players in football’s 2nd and even 3rd divisions, in some cases, earn a higher salary than basketball players in the 1st division. So, basketball ends up being a last resource and a way to keep kids active until they’re off to college.
All of this, connected with the amateur/semi-professional status of most intervenients, cuts most possibilities of success of the sport right at the root. But it is possible to do more. The recent success of handball proves it. Portuguese handball national team will be at the Olympics. The best Portuguese teams have been improving steadily in European competitions. Portugal’s youth national teams have been achieving better and better results. So, I went and talked with Maria Ema Bastos, Director of Marketing and Communication of 7metros (go follow them if you haven’t already) to try to understand what’s behind this recent growth and success of handball in Portugal and we can apply that to basketball.
One big difference is the number of foreigners. In basketball, there is a limit of 5 foreign players on the game sheet. Handball has no limit of foreigners (curiously, Portugal’s biggest sport — football — doesn’t either). And the national team is still prospering. Portugal still generates young talent (more than ever actually) and they play in the 1st Division. Simply, only the better ones reach that level. It’s almost Darwinesque, in the sense that only the fittest “survive”. And by being in daily contact with better players they will, in turn, become better players.
Another important aspect is where do the players come from. Most of the handball players come from Cuba and Cape Verde and some of them are actually granted Portuguese citizenship and figure in the national team. Basketball does this with some Americans, European and African players, but at a much lower rate. Given that foreign players stay in Portugal so little time (I will expand on this later on), they aren’t able to become citizens and can’t be part of the national team.
The Portuguese Federation of Handball has also been doing excellent work, creating conditions for new coaches to appear, clinics with the best in the world and promoting the sport to the youngsters. Having the national team and some clubs reach new heights in European and World competitions brings in more attention. The proximity between pros and youngsters and the formers’ success create idols and the will for younger players to reach higher levels. Portuguese basketball has a lot to learn here. In my opinion, we lack visibility and promotion of our own players. That has been changing with the ascension of Neemias Queta in the NCAA, but it is not enough. We also need to create better conditions for younger coaches to come in and succeed, giving them the necessary support.
Portuguese handball has come a long way. There is a constant presence of Portuguese teams in European competitions. Teams are competing on the three different competitions and going farther each year, breaking records and historically better teams along the way. Portuguese basketball rarely puts a team in an European competition and they struggle to go far.
The national teams face the same issues. While handball’s teams have consistently been better, basketball’s have been struggling. Portugal reached 4th place in both under-19 and 21 World Cups in 2019 and, as I have mentioned before, will debut in the Tokyo Olympics. In basketball, the most recent conquest was the u20 victory in Division B in 2019. Still a bit far from handball’s example, but a really good stepping stone. Coincidentally (or not), Portugal’s 9th place in the2007 European Championship comes at the same time of thehighest rise in federated athletes, almost doubling the 2006 number, as we can see in the graph.
This means that better participations from Portugal’s senior and youth teams will attract more athletes to join in. It gives them goals, objectives and the clear idea that they can do it for their country too.
By this point, you’re probably wondering that there must be something that makes reaching a higher level in handball easier. Probably Portugal has a better handball league, even compared to Europe, than a basketball one. But, as Maria tells me, that’s not the case. Portuguese handball league comes at a second or even third level in the European panorama. Just like basketball. But there was a conscious effort to bring in players from countries with more talent and give them the necessary conditions to stay here (basketball does the first, but not the second).
And we cannot even blame the lack of competitiveness. Handball has three clear cut title candidates, with Porto one or two levels ahead of Sporting and Benfica in recent years. The same clubs are also candidates in basketball, with Oliveirense joining them. There is also a clear commitment from the teams below this level, that try to compete for European spots, to give playing time to young players, either from their academy or loaning them from the best teams. This isn’t really a strategy used in Portuguese basketball, as the best young players join Portom Benfica or Sporting, play for their B teams and join the first team (when they do and it’s rare) late.
These are just some of the examples Portuguese handball and its growth has to show to Portuguese basketball. It is the starting point to a more extensive analysis on the Portuguese League and how we can make it better, elevating our basketball.
