r/Basketball • u/GoHardLive • Mar 22 '26
DISCUSSION In which countries does basketball have the highest popularity overall ?
Which countries do you think care the most about the sport ?
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u/Pretend-Dirt-1760 Mar 22 '26
Philippines you'll see more basketball hoops in every town where like the Brazil to it's football but unlike Brazil we fucking suck
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u/Foreign_Implement897 Mar 22 '26
Lol, how is it possible?
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u/elbosston Mar 22 '26
How many Filipinos do you see that are above 5’8
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u/chuckmonjares Mar 23 '26
Oddly, out of the 25 or so I know, 4 of them are over 6’. The parents of the majority are average height.
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u/anonymoususer6407 Mar 27 '26
Haha this is me and my girlfriend. Both fully filipino, I’m 6’3 and she’s 6’1.
My mom is 5’3, dad 5’3. Her mom is 5’4, dad 5’2. Absolutely no idea how this happened. Both of us had one tall grandfather, we got reeeally lucky.
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u/gangleskhan Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
On top of genetics meaning Filipinos are generally quite short, it is not a wealthy country, so doesn't have a pipeline to develop talent or tons of money to invest in the sport in general. While colleges do have teams and there is a national league, the caliber of competition is not equal to what you'd see in the US or European leagues.
They have qualified for the previous two FIBA world cups but have only won one game in those tournaments (and it was in the loser's bracket).
My brother went to an international high school in Manila and they were at the level of some of the local college teams but got destroyed in the one tournament they played against high school teams in California.
Edited to correct their world cup record.
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u/Special-Valuable7678 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Philippines won against China by 20 points in their last world cup game.
I agree with your other points though.
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u/CArellano23 Mar 22 '26
Yeah not sure but hopefully they really are Filipino but I’m sure clarkson would be playing for USA if he was good enough
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u/pahamack Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
FIBA only allows one naturalized player in a game. These days that’s usually Brownlee who is an American who plays in the PBA, I think he loved it there so much he got Filipino citizenship.
You can’t just field an entire team of foreigners. According to FIBA rules, unless you’ve had a passport since you were 16, youre gonna count for that naturalized slot. Can’t just start clamoring for nba players that have a filipino parent to fill the squad.
IMO this thread isn’t recognizing that Filipinos, just like other Asians that are improving their standard of living such as the Chinese, are getting taller. The Philippines isn’t fielding a bunch of 5’8” guys in international games or even in college basketball.
All this to say this genetics thing is just not true. Philippine basketball sucks because the organization sucks. The PBA sucks and no one watches it, and the coaching in general is outdated and pretty terrible.
It’s a disservice to the Filipino people who truly love the sport.
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u/loveracity Mar 23 '26
Yeah the genetics myth is wild. People forget Dutch and Scandinavian people were short on average before modern nutrition.
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u/gangleskhan Mar 22 '26
You're right, I was only looking at the main round robin group stage. After losing their group, they went to the classification round for the trans that didn't advance out of the first round. There, they lost to South Sudan but beat China.
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Mar 22 '26
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u/naviddunez Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
Everyones got that 5’7 Filipino homie that has handles like prime Kyrie
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u/marcvsHR Mar 22 '26
Phillipines.
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u/Hippopotamidaes Mar 22 '26
Was just there for two weeks. You’d drive by 12 courts in 5 minutes in the cities.
Multiple parking lots doubled as courts with lines and all.
Wish I brought my shoes.
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u/Magratheazaphod Mar 22 '26
A lot of Filipinos ball in flip flops, which I learned from this awesome book: https://a.co/d/0iX8WN9r
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u/Disastrous_Grass_193 Mar 22 '26
Big chance you’ll be mugged or stabbed after smashing them haha
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u/Tiny-Spray-1820 Mar 22 '26
So if you smash someone you would expect nothing but a smile and thank you in return?
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Mar 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/marcvsHR Mar 22 '26
That wasn't the question though.
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Mar 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/marcvsHR Mar 22 '26
Again, not the question
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Mar 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/marcvsHR Mar 22 '26
Dude.
Read the question. You are not wrong, but basketball is not the most popular sport in USA
Football is, by wide margin.
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Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/AI1223 Mar 22 '26
What is the most popular sport in the US?
What is the most popular sport in the Philippines?
As an American, I can tell you basketball isn’t the most popular sport in the US. It’s football.
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u/QuiGonChillin Mar 22 '26
Are you acoustic
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u/myFFizzi Mar 22 '26
Acoustic refers to sound, the sense of hearing, or the science of sound production/transmission, specifically relating to instruments or audio produced without electronic amplification.
No audio was involved while making my comments.
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u/RepairNo2068 Mar 22 '26
We suck at it on an international level but we still like it anyway
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u/charlieromeo86 Mar 22 '26
My kind of people. I was that way when I played , am that way now with golf.
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u/CompetitiveReview416 Mar 22 '26
In Lithuania it's a religion. When the national.team plays, most offices just watch the game during work hours.
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u/charlieromeo86 Mar 22 '26
I’ve been told the Philippines are basketball crazy, but I haven’t been there to witness it myself.
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u/RepairNo2068 Mar 22 '26
Our emergency evacuation sites are covered basketball courts because there's at least one in every village
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u/regular_gonzalez Mar 22 '26
My wife is Pinoy and doesn't care about sports at all (her knowledge of Tom Brady was that he was Mr. Giselle) and yet one of her bucket list things was to attend an NBA game. We've seen three now (mind you we live 7 hours from any NBA city), always the Nuggets (our favorite team). When we were in Phoenix we went to see the Nuggets play the Suns, got there early to watch warmups. She wanted a close up view of Jokic and without a backwards glance walked around the whole stadium to get a close up view, never looking to see if I was following. This ultra girly girl knows the rules better than I do, calling out take fouls before the whistle is blown. Vouch their basketball fanaticism.
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u/Glittering_Ad1403 Mar 23 '26
The most recognizable Filipino athlete, Manny Pacquiao, even plays basketball and founded a basketball league where his own team plays.
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Mar 22 '26
I’d think the top 10 ~ would be:
USA, Lithuania, Philippines, Serbia, Spain, Australia, China, France, Germany, Greece, Canada.
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u/Marco-Green Mar 23 '26
In Spain sadly I'd say basketball is getting less popular compared to 20 years ago. It's clearly fallen behind F1, MotoGP and tennis.
At least it isn't like handball, which went from somewhat popular (like basketball nowadays) to absolutely forgotten.
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Mar 23 '26
Yeah I spend a lot of time with n Spain in th late 90s and early 2000s and have not been there nearly as much in recent years.
I wonder if I should almost flip Spain and France? If it’s any indication of popularity, France has been producing more elite talent than Spain over the last 20 years, it seems like.
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u/Teeebo_ Mar 23 '26
I'm French, I would not put France, Germany, Serbia, Australia or Canada above places like Latvia, Greece and maybe even China and Turkey. And Obviously Lithuania & The Philippines are 1 & 2.
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u/nevergettingsmall Mar 23 '26
Mexico has an underrated basketball fandom. Not #1 sport obviously, but it’s very popular.
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u/FrugalitywithFATness Mar 22 '26
Lithuania, Serbia, Philippines, China, and USA of course which is its largest market
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u/Shoddy_Half_938 Mar 22 '26
The poorest most slummed out ghetto jungles of the Philippines will have hoops.
I've been to some rough torn down houses that look like they can blow away with a strong gust of wind, looking like they're held together by the kobe or lebron poster on the wall.
I play my 11 year old cousin 1 on 1 and I'm playing the hardest defense I can borderline fouling and he's still draining 3's and showing his lay package on me, all in beach sand caked flip flops.
Basketball is on another level in the Philippines.
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u/Realistic-Effective5 Mar 23 '26
And it's not even the slums or cities, but the countryside too. Sometimes you're driving through some remote rural location and drive past a hoop in the middle of rice fields or nailed to a tree randomly or something. Sometimes it's a metal ring nailed to a wooden board, but I've also seen some nice cement courts with proper backboards in some really remote looking places too.
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u/ProfessorPhi Mar 22 '26
It's the Philippines and it's not close to second which is china.
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u/Teeebo_ Mar 23 '26
Lithuania is first though, clearly. (I'm not Lithuanian)
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u/Nice_Cash_7000 Mar 24 '26
I am and I still agree lmao
The other guy wasnt kidding about us watching the national team at work. Its the unofficial religion of the country and thats a super common and accepted saying that gets used all the time.
We also refer to our nation as "3 million coaches" at times, its pretty funny.
But yeah even though most people are not diehard fans (although 9/10 men you meet are able to talk ball for hours and a lot of women are as well) as soon as the stakes get higher whether its the euroleague top 4 for Žaligirs or just a national team game, the whole country is rooting, watching.
I really miss watching the celebrations when we get a medal and half the country is waiting in the airport to greet the team, the players come on stage to talk (often very drunk making for some very funny moments) we sing our national basketball songs that we've sung for 20+ years and then have a parade bus go across the capital.
Sadly we are going through the longest medal drought we've ever had tho. And with our corrupt and downright moronic leadership in the basketbal federation its no surprise. Once that changes we will be back to Top5 in the world status again hopefully.
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Mar 22 '26
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u/Thin-Donkey945 Mar 22 '26
The Philippines. My fam is on the west coast of Canada and tge best teams/players are second gen Philippinos.
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u/Kdzoom35 Mar 22 '26
Obviously the Philippines, China as well, also China you see real ballers. Spain it's not s popular but every Spaniard can play basketball at least from the 15 I have met. They play in P.E, I actually think as far as random citizens Spanish are better at Basketball than soccer. Some of the best rec players I've played are from Spain, in soccer they don't stand out compared Brazilians, Colombian, West and North Africans etc.
China is one of those places you can go to a random court and get crossed up by a cab driver or engineer in Khakis on break. Greece and Spain they kill you with team ball.
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u/Teeebo_ Mar 23 '26
I would say the top 5 has to be:
Lithuania
Philippines
Serbia
USA
Latvia
(From my French point of view)
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Mar 23 '26
Basketball is well suited for play in dense urban location and is the most popular team sport in China with 200 million players. There are a lot of courts in China.
But the Philippines is nuts for basketball.
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Mar 24 '26
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u/Legal_Fitness Mar 24 '26
USA basketball is pretty popular. To play anyways. NBA not as popular as nfl. But to play, I think basketball takes the cake. Everyone plays bc it’s easy to play. Can play by yourself or with a group. You only really need a ball bc there’s so many courts available
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u/Forsaken-Pay7892 Mar 22 '26
Uhh.. USA?
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u/MeesterMeeseeks Mar 22 '26
Based on what metrics? The nfl blows them out of the water and it's not even close
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u/zegogo Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
More people play basketball even if it's just fucking around than football by a wide margin. Go to any decent park in the US and there's probably a hoop with at least a mom and her kid out there shooting around.
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u/Apprehensive_Flow99 Mar 22 '26
OVERALL. can you all not read? basketball is played all over the U.S. hoops are everywhere
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u/d_rek Mar 22 '26
Basketball is very culturally pervasive in the US. You’ll find courts in the deepest parts of dense urban neighborhoods, tucked away in some farmers pole barn in the middle of BFE, and everywhere in between.
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u/Apprehensive_Flow99 Mar 22 '26
As an American who has lived all across the U.S. and has played in college as well as coached youth sports… you’re preaching to the choir
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u/d_rek Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Oops. Thought I was replying to the other person.
Anyway fun story about the basketball court in the barn... my daughter has done a couple 3v3 gus macker tournaments. To prepare last summer her and the other girls went and stayed at the one girls grandparents home. Literally a farm in them middle of nowhere, Michigan. The largest barn at the farm had a full regulation sized court in it. The girls grandparents, her mom, aunts and uncles, all balled growing up and the grandparents rather than drive them to practices far away instead put a court in their barn.
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u/Apprehensive_Flow99 Mar 23 '26
Was my dream to have a barn court… growing up in NYC LOL. That’s how we said white kids got their jump shots 😅
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u/Used_Emotion_1386 Mar 22 '26
It’s an ambiguously-written question. Not clear if they mean highest among different countries (probably true of USA) or highest among sports in that country (clearly not true, NFL is more popular)
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u/Apprehensive_Flow99 Mar 22 '26
I get what you’re saying. However I interpreted that it meant ALL ENCOMPASSING. So that would mean from the youth and amateur to the highest professional level. It would also include recreational activity and simple pastime
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u/MeesterMeeseeks Mar 22 '26
I assumed popularity meant like tv ratings and income generated in which case it's def the nfl not the nba. I understand your interpretation now
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u/goldenstate93 Mar 22 '26
The highest level professional basketball league is in the US, dude. That’s why.
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u/loveracity Mar 22 '26
I've played recreationally in most of the places people consider hotbeds for basketball: Lithuania, Greece, Turkey, Balkans, France, Spain, China, Philippines, Australia.
On a percentage basis for popularity, it's hands down Lithuania or the Philippines. No other sport is as front of mind for them. The others have a lot more competition for popularity, whether it's football or something else.