Job Discussion Forums

snielz · Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 165 Location: Buenos Aires

I will be coming to Argentina in a month and living in Buenos Aires. I started thinking about this move last summer and it caught my attention when Argentina won the gold medal in basketball at the olympics. I was wondering if this exposure has caused any more people to play basketball? I know that soccer is a way of life for the people, but I am hoping to be able to find a place to play some basketball when I get there. I haven't heard anyone talk about this topic so I figured I would ask if anyone has noticed anything in day to day life...

carlos-england · Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:30 pm Post subject:

The world title win and the Olympic bornze medal
was a BIG DEAL in Argentina, but though you see a lot
of Argentine league basketball on TV the game is not
something Argentinians are physically equipped for.
I woudn't say it was a major sport, Argentinians are like
the English in which they support their sports men and
women very passionetly.

If you are American and about 6ft 2ins, you are going to
be like Magic Johnson amongst all the titchy Argentines.

Argentines are obsessed with football, rugby is pretty
big and they have a well organized league and boxing and
amongst the women field hockey and netball are popular.

There will be an organized amateur league and a good way
to make friends and learn the language but basketball is
not what stokes the passions of the nation I'm afraid.

snielz · Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 165 Location: Buenos Aires

Carlos,
Good to know. Thanks for the reply. I have a question though- what does "titchy" mean?? I am 6'4" but I figured Argentines were relatively tall due to all of the European ancestry. Is this not the case? Do you think I could parlay this into minor celebrity status- just below Manu Ginobilli, of course... I definitely want to learn to appreciate the world sport of soccer more (it is not so big in the US) but I was hoping there would be leagues to play basketball in too. It seems this would be a good way to make friends.

Carlos, I know that you are 6'2"...start working on your jump shot if you are up for a game...

matttheboy · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 854 Location: Valparaiso, Chile

Basketball is actually pretty popular here (well, in comparison to in england where no one gives a toss about the most tedious game on the planet-after baseball and US football of course Very Happy

-oh, look, he's scored, oh, look the other team has scored, and again, and again...yawn yawn yawn) Sorry, i'm a football (sorry, soccerball Very Happy

) and rugby man myself...

You mentioned the name Ginobilli-he's the reason the sport is picking up here, he made the AllStars which was widely reported. There's always something in the paper about basketball as well, there are local leagues and the Argentine league is shown on the telly. It's not a game you see people playing in the streets or parks, like football but i'm certain you'll be able to find a club in every barrio.

and Argentines really aren't that small Carlos, especially in Buenos Aires. About the same height as your average Spaniard, a little smaller than northern europeans but certainly not tiny (titchy). I don't find i tower above people at all and i'm 6'1. In ecuador i felt like Peter Crouch must feel like at a children's birthday party. The girls here are also pretty tall, no shorter than english girls. There are a lot of Bolivian immigrants in buenos aires and they are a fair bit smaller than Argentines. Another reason they're looked down upon...

carlos-england · Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:39 am Post subject:

I'll tell you both a story about my first time in Capital
Federal, went to an hotel and the chap behind the
counter looked up at me and he said 'you are a giant! (yup a giant)
we don't have a bed that will fit you' and they got me a
double bed for no extra charge which was rather nice of
them.

One day my and my girl and her friends were in a taxi and
I got in the front, but the front seat wasn't designed for anyone
over 5ft 7ins so my forehead was pressed against the window
and my knees where all over his gearstick and lower dashboard.
The driver kept quipping 'were going to have to put you on the roof'
and was rather jovial until my knee (accidentaly) turned his indicators
on where he then lost the plot and then I did saying something along
the lines of swearing and bad grammar.

Well I'm broad and muscular as well so that may be it, but
all I know is that people would comment on my height and
my size all the time. Asking if British people were as big as I was
again, I'm 6ft 2in, nothing outrageously huge. But sneilz you'll
be back here saying 'hey carlos you were right!' because 6ft 4ins
you are bound to get comments if I did.

Basketball is popular in itself, but when you compare it
to football, basketball is a minor sport, which is what I
was trying to imply. Everything makes way for football
even when football is out of season they will show last seasons
league games on the tv. But if you are a basketball junkie
you'll be fine finding watching live league games and playing.
You'll be fine!

I'm back there in August and I like a good game of basketball...
haven't player since school where I was pretty good (16 years
ago lol) but hey... I'll have a go...

snielz · Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 165 Location: Buenos Aires

Good to know that I can still play some good basketball when I get there. Matt, it's hard to believe you really think basketball is boring. It is a fast-paced match between some of the most athletic people on the planet. In what other sport do have a bunch of guys who can sprint 90 feet over, constantly soaring in to the air, with the dexterity to control a basketball and good footwork? In addition, these are some of the tallest people in the world. I think if you understood it better you would probably be in to it, or if it was more the sport of choice in England you would like it better. I am the same way with football. I don't understand it very well and so sometimes it seems to simply be a bunch of people running back and forth for 90 minutes with only one or two goals providing the excitement but I also know there is more to it than that and I am looking forward to learning about it from people that care about it so much. (I appreciate it a little from being in Italy and the Czech Republic)...Maybe you are just saying you don't like it so you don't have to play the winner of Carlos and I (haha).

carlos-england · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:03 pm Post subject:

I like basketball, it is not popular here (in the UK)
but in Spain and Greece it is pretty big. It is the only
american sport that has any proper acceptance outside
its borders from what I can see whereas football is the
WORLD game...

Listen, I find some football games boring like the
Italian scudetto is like watching paint dry for me but
the Italians think our football is all rush in and kick
it up the field with the minimum of skill
(and if you watch west brom thats exactly
what it is Razz

But I will have you a game of basketball as long as you
can come along for a game of 5 a side that we have every sunday...
thats a deal I think!!!

snielz · Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 165 Location: Buenos Aires

I'm game when you get there in August. My only question is what is 5 a side?? Is it a smaller version of football? By the way, I appreciate american football and baseball as I grew up watching them and playing them, but as I have gotten older, I can definitely see why others aren't in to them. As spectator sports they are pretty boring...

Weona · Joined: 11 Apr 2004 Posts: 166 Location: Chile

snielz · Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 165 Location: Buenos Aires

Weona,
I feel bad saying it because I have some sentimental attachement to american football but when I think about it as objectively as I can, I have to agree that it is one of the worst sports I can think of. The athletes are pretty incredible (thanks to rampant steroid and substance abuse) and sometimes individual plays or "highlights" are exciting but to watch a whole game is usually incredibly boring...

On a tangent, I think that the rise of all-sports channels such as espn with shows dedicated solely to highlights have heavily contributed to the pop-culture appeal of american football and also to the evolution of the style of play in basketball. Now, basketball in the U.S. is more about flashy dunks, or using a spectacular move to beat the defender and less about the rhythm and tempo of the game...Although in basketball this may be changing due to the influx of foreign players.

Weona · Joined: 11 Apr 2004 Posts: 166 Location: Chile

I agree, snielz. Sports in general from the U.S. tend to be pretty commercialized and based around fancy plays/dunks/homeruns/how many tattoos you have, etc... but I still think that there is some legitimacy in university sports, those are the most exciting to watch, I think! Baseball for me still continues being one of my favorite major league sports but with the influx of steriod use as you mentioned... you have to wonder about what is real skill and how much of it is actually provided by the drug. That goes for all sports, unfortunately.

JosephP · Joined: 13 May 2003 Posts: 445

American football is the worst sport? Uh...I agree. Baseball is pretty popular in Japan I hear. Baseball is absulutely exhilirating compared to cricket (but I do like the cricket. I can handle boredom extremely well).

ElNota · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 123 Location: Buenos Aires

Baseball might be boring, but you can't honestly say that its any more boring than cricket. Basketball? No way.

But nothing holds a candle to curling. I was at a bar once in Toronto and I was watching a Lakers game by myself, when twenty people showed up and demanded they change the channel to watch some curling match.

I was outraged, and promised them that if they ever come to California I'm gonna force them to watch NASCAR when hockey is on.

AndyRoofman · Joined: 27 Feb 2005 Posts: 31

I'm Australian- so of course I'm biased. However, in cricket batters used skill, footwork and technique to hit the ball (off the front or bask foot) playing either attacking or defensive strokes. In baseball, batters play what are called in cricket "Cow shots"- they simply slog the crap out of the ball.

Also, in cricket with batting, you have to judge the trajectory of the ball after it pitches (bounces)- much harder than baseball because the bounce is unpredictable-, which depending on whether you are playing in England, Australia, India, Pakistam, the West Indies etc varies a lot from place to place, a lot like adjusting from playing tennis on grass, clay, carpet or indoors.

snielz · Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 165 Location: Buenos Aires

Good points about cricket. Since we don't play it here, the only things I know about cricket are from catching an update on the BBC, that is, that games take days and the score is in the hundreds. It sounds incredibly hard. I do know from playing baseball that it is incredibly hard to be a good hitter. What about the ball? In baseball, a core is covered with leather that is stitched together. These stitches make it possible for the pitchers to throw pitches which move and break as they come toward the hitter and can be very hard to judge. Also, the bat is about 2.5 diameter and perfectly round. The physics of using a round bat to hit a round ball squarely so it is not a pop out or ground out are difficult. Plus, there are a lot of defenders in baseball so the area you can safely hit it decreases exponentially the softer, or less square, you hit it?

How does cricket compare, or what are some other aspects?