28 / 50
PLAYERS & THE GAME AROUND THE WORLD
26
A reproduction of an ancient drawing shows the “basketball game,” played in Mexico about 1500
years ago.
BASKETBALL IN LATIN AMERICA
Today, from Mexico to Chile, kids are playing basketball in the streets and on dusty out-
door courts. At the professional level, though, the game has to compete with this region’s
number-one sport:
futból
(soccer).
Soccer’s influence on basketball is very obvious in Latin America’s informal street games.
Players raised on soccer tend to pass more than dribble. In some countries, however, like
Argentina and Brazil, where basketball has been around longer and is more established,
coaches take advantage of this tendency to build players who have very strong teamwork
and footwork skills.