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| De Mello says success in next year's Olympics will be crucial. |
ARNON DE MELLO is the NBA VP/Managing Director for Brazil. De Mello helped the league open an office in Rio de Janeiro in Oct. '12. That office now has 10 employees, and the NBA's recent commitment to growing the game in Brazil has seen two preseason games played in Rio de Janeiro -- a '13 matchup between the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards and a game in October between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat. The latest step in the NBA's expansion of its footprint in Brazil came in December, when the league announced a five-year partnership with the Liga Nacional de Basquete. De Mello described the partnership, through which the NBA aims to increase fan engagement and new business development for the LNB, as one in which "we have the responsibility today to take care of the commercial part of the league." The LNB's Jogo das Estrelas all-star weekend in March provided fans a glimpse of the commercial strides the league is taking, with Brazilian bank Bradesco, TAM Airlines, adidas, socks brand Stance and Spalding all involved as sponsors. De Mello spoke with SBD Global about the potential he sees in Brazil, the quality of play in the LNB and the role next summer's Olympics will play in the growth of basketball in the country.
On the importance of the 2016 Olympics...
Arnon De Mello: We have high hopes that our national team will do well during the Games and that will help consolidate basketball's position in terms of popularity. There are many things the local confederation is doing. We’re helping a lot, bringing more visibility to the sport, on TV and local events. The local league is also doing its part. I think the culmination of all that will come in 2016 when we have the Olympics here in Rio de Janeiro and we have a good team with many NBA players. We hope to do well there. If we do, I think we're in a very good position to once again claim that spot as the No. 2 sport in popularity in Brazil.
On the impact on-court success could have on the game's popularity...
De Mello: This is what happened with volleyball here. I think everywhere in the world, people like to win, but I think Brazilians are very addicted to that. ... The players are charismatic and basketball is a very important sport. It's my opinion that it's the most important collective team sport in the Olympics, even more so than football, even here for Brazil. We'll have a lot of huge spotlight with the Dream Team coming and other very strong teams, and we have a strong team, so I think there will be a lot of interest in basketball during the Games. I think [Brazil's national team] doing well is one of the very important points. Some would say, and I could agree, that right now [on-court success] is the most important [factor] because the rest is in place to happen.
On holding a regular season NBA game in Brazil...
De Mello: Mexico is much easier, because it's very close to the U.S. For the regular-season games, you have to be quick, in and out. Brazil of course is more difficult, more distance. We actually like having the preseason games here because we have the teams here for a longer period of time. We have them here for four days, so there are a lot of opportunities to activate with the players, with the teams, in the local market. Whereas for a regular season game, you can argue that the game is more competitive and it means something because the results matter, but you don't have the players and the teams for the same period of time. They're in and out very quickly. For where we stand today and where our market is, I actually like the preseason game model better for us than the regular season.
On comparing basketball in Brazil and in Argentina -- which won Gold in '04 and Bronze in '08...
De Mello: Argentina had a very successful run in the past few years. So much so that we stole, in the good sense of the word, we stole their coach [in '10]. The Argentinian coach [Rubén Magnano] who won the Olympic [Gold] Medal [in '04] is now our coach for the Brazilian team. We're very excited. The level of the local league [LNB] now is much higher than the level of the league in Argentina. We feel that at the grassroots level, we're doing a better job now than Argentina is, so we're very hopeful that our next generations will be very competitive as well.
On Brazil's basketball history...
De Mello: Brazil was actually world champion, they won two world cups in the '60s. Brazil was also very good in the '80s. We won the Pan American Games against the States in Indianapolis in '87. We have some history in basketball. Of course we did not see those results in the past couple of decades, but now it's coming back. And we think that we have a very good generation of players. We now actually need to start preparing the next generation. We have a couple of very good players already coming into the league, including Bruno Caboclo and Lucas "Bebe" Nogueira of the Toronto Raptors.
Hangin' With runs each Friday in SBD Global.
