Between Adoption and Resistance: Grobalization and Glocalization in the Development of Israeli Basketball

Abstract

Sports provide one of the most prominent fields in which one can study the interaction between globalization and glocalization processes. Drawing on recent theoretical developments in globalization theory and on both primary and secondary data, the present article examines the case of Israeli basketball. This case demonstrates the tension between grobal and glocal processes, also evident in other Middle-Eastern and East-Asian countries. We first discuss the process by which American basketball practices, ideology, language, culture, and players came to dominate Israeli basketball. We then move to examine the glocal responses to this process, which combine adoption and acceptance with local resistance to the increasing domination of American players and culture.