‘Europe Gets More Game Everyday’. Professional Basketball, Transatlantic Sports Models and European Integration since the 1950s

This paper examines the current feud between the two main actors of professional basketball in Europe - FIBA Europe and Euroleague Basketball - from a socio-his­torical perspective. It aims to delineate the diplomatic negotiations and organiza­tional shifts in European sport competitions in relation to the growing influence of US basketball during the Cold War. Through an analysis of official reports and the press, as well as interviews with members of the European Parliament, this paper shows that basketball has acted as an informal sporting corollary to the 1957 Treaty of Rome, promoting the European community by way of a meritocratic system of sports competitions between teams or nations. The rivalry under study shows that the hegemonic post-Cold War US market-based model has challenged the ideas be­hind a “European model of sports”, ultimately putting the recent legislatures in a quandary about the initial consensus behind European integration.