In order to further popularize basketball and promote its development in China, the 1st World Basketball Forum, sponsored by BSU and organized by China Basketball College of BSU, was held in Dapeng Hall of BSU on November 7. Its purpose was to strengthen the exchange and cooperation between China and countries strong on basketball in the world in basketball, and further study and explore the development of basketball in China to raise the whole level of basketball in China.
Gao Feng, member of the standing committee of the Party Committee of BSU and vice-president of BSU, Bai Xilin, general secretary of Chinese Basketball Association, Damir Knjaz, former president of the Sports College of University of Zagreb, Hu Songhui, director of Macao-China Basketball Association, and famous basketball experts from countries like Lithuania, the UK, Spain, Croatia and Finland attended the opening ceremony. They all thought highly of the forum.
As a national-level professional basketball college, China Basketball College has produced the world-level basketball talents with deep emotions for the country and a sense of social responsibility in the new era by focusing on the cultivation of high-level basketball players, coaches and referees since it was established two years ago, said Gao Feng in his address. In the future, it will continue to shoulder key tasks in the development of basketball to make contributions of BSU in the building of a country strong on sports with the spirit of “Always Striving to Fulfill Our Mission” and under the guidance of “promote the popularization and development of football, basketball and volleyball in an all-round way, and actively explore the development path of the ‘three major balls’ with Chinese characteristics” pointed out clearly in the Outline of Building a Country Strong on Sports , added Gao.
Bai Xilin summarized the development of basketball in China in his address and pointed out the development direction of Chinese Basketball Association. Chinese Basketball Association will focus its efforts on “the national team tackling difficulties, laying a good foundation for the training of adolescent players, improving the quality of league matches and cultivation of coaches”, said he. We would inherit the values of “virtue, surpassing and sharing”, and be committed to the mission of “promoting the influence of basketball in China, expand the basketball population based on teenagers and communicating with the world with the basketball culture” to realize the vision of “basketball promises a brighter life”, he added.
Hu Songhui, a representative of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and director of Macao-China Basketball Association, presented his sincere blessing for the forum. Basketball represents one of the most popular sports in China, and people on both sides of Taiwan Straits share the same vision in pushing forward the development of basketball, he said.
It is essential for different countries to have exchanges and cooperation in basketball, which will result in better development of basketball across the world, Damir Knjaz said. He believed that this world basketball forum will provide more plausible solutions to the challenges faced by basketball for the time being.
During the forum, BSU invited many famous basketball experts, legendary player, famous coaches and professional basketball managers from all parts of the world to share several topics such as the development trends of the world basketball and teenager basketball, new opportunities of the basketball clubs in their move of going global, etc. with the honored guests participating in the conference. The forum gathered the basketball fans and professionals across the globe, providing a sufficiently open platform for the communication of the participants.
This forum was live broadcast by the new media network of CCTV. The organization of this forum not only provided a platform for exchanges and sharing by the basketball professionals and fans from all parts of the world, but also played an important role in the internationalization and communication of Chinese basketball and mutual learning of the world civilization.