「レッツゴー キャム！」Cam, Ikuzo! Come follow Camden’s journey! August 2023
更新日：2023年7月31日
History of Basketball & What I Love About Basketball in Japan
For the first time since coming to Japan, I held a lecture for citizens of Matsudo as part of the “MIEA World Tour” series, and during it I talked about the inventor of basketball, James Naismith, and the situation he was in at the time of creating the sport. It was a good opportunity for getting to know more about the sport, as even most people who love basketball are not familiar with the story of its creation.
The place where basketball was first invented is in Springfield, Massachusetts, a city that is nearby the state of Maine which is my home state. James Naismith then later became the first basketball head coach of the University of Kansas, which is my alma mater. So his story is one that is not just important an American culture perspective, but I also feel that it is closely tied to my own experiences. And as a University of Kansas graduate it was an honor to be put in a position where I could share with a wider audience a story that is very important to my school. In fact, 8 years ago a professor at the University of Kansas discovered what is the only known recording of James Naismith’s voice, from when he was interviewed on radio broadcast in the year 1939. For the “MIEA World Tour” event I translated this recording into Japanese, and read it aloud alongside the original audio. In the recording Naismith talks about how the events unfolded, starting from when he invented the sport as a physical education instructor to occupy his students who were getting rowdy due to being stuck inside during a blizzard, all the way up until when he eventually got to watch the sport he created in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games a few years prior.
By the way, the uniform I was wearing during the lecture is for the recreational basketball team I am playing for, called the “Mutsumi Raiders.” If you are wondering about the differences between basketball in America and Japan, one of the big ones is how Japan tournaments always use a “shot clock” which is for a enforcing a rule that the teams have 24 seconds to put up a shot for each possession. In America, leagues that are below professional level do not use this rule, so I would suspect that most people who come from overseas to play in Japanese basketball leagues are surprised at the fast pace at which the game is played here. Including the person who is in charge of controlling the shot clock, players waiting to play and players who have finished playing each have a role to take care of for the other tournament games so that everything can run smoothly, which I believe to be a wonderful part about how the sport is treated here. This may be something that seems very commonplace for people who compete in the sport in Japan, but it is actually quite rare to find non-professional leagues aimed at adults in America with this level of organization.
Recreational basketball tournament (Yokaichiba Dome)
I would love to host another “MIEA World Tour” lecture on basketball to share more about the sport’s charm, so to anyone who would like to deepen their knowledge on the sport, please be on the lookout for it!
バスケットボールの歴史紹介と日本のバスケの魅力
来日後、初めて市民の方の前で「MIEA世界めぐり」という講座を7月2日に実施し、その際にバスケットボールを発明したジェームズ・ネイスミス氏の紹介やバスケが作られた当時の状況について説明しました。これはバスケに興味を持っている人でもあまり知られていないことが多く、バスケを知ってもらう良い機会でした。
バスケットボールの発祥の地は私の出身地（メイン州）に近いマサチューセッツ州スプリングフィールドであり、その後ネイスミス氏が私の母校（カンザス大学）の最初のコーチとなりました。アメリカの文化に通じる話だけではなく、私自身の経験と色々共通点を交えて、その話を展開する立場になることができ、カンザス大学のOBとして本当に光栄でした。8年前にカンザス大学の教授が1939年に行われたラジオ番組の録音を発見し、それを私が日本語に訳し、今回の「MIEA世界めぐり」のイベントではその内容を皆さんに聞いていただきました。マサチューセッツ州の吹雪の中、教育の先生だったネイスミス氏が自分の荒れている生徒を落ち着かせるために考え出した新しいスポーツの話から、そのバスケットボールというスポーツがオリンピック競技となり、1936年にベルリンで初めてオリンピックでバスケの試合を見られた話までの展開、皆さんに知っていただきたい歴史です。
ちなみに、講座で着ていたのは今所属している「六実レーダース」という社会人バスケチームのユニフォームです。日本のバスケはアメリカのバスケと何が違うかというと、毎回24秒以内にシュートをしないといけないルールのため、「ショットクロック」というものが設置されています。アメリカのプロ未満のリーグではその機械を使用しないため、海外から来てバスケをプレーする人は日本のテンポが速いバスケに驚くでしょう。その機械を操作する人も含めて、待機中や試合が終わった選手が他の試合が円滑に進むように色々な役割を果たすのは日本のバスケのいいところだと思います。これは日本で当たり前のことだと思われているかもしれませんが、実際は上記のように積極的に開催されている大人向けの大会はアメリカにおいて珍しいです。
社会人バスケの大会（八日市場ドーム）
まだまだバスケの魅力を広めたいので、今後同様に「MIEA世界めぐり」のイベントがあった際にはぜひ来てください！
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