Over at MSNBC, there's a neat article up about an upcoming trip to the US - Salt Lake City, no less - by the 2007 FIBA Asia Champion, Iran. I'm sure that wingnuts and other paranoid ninnies will view this as the opening phase of the long awaited 'Islamo-fascist' invasion of the 'Homeland', but I think this is great news and I hope that someone (Hello, NBA?) either broadcasts the games or films them and posts them somewhere.
We need more of this citizen diplomacy, not less. As a two time exchange student to Japan & the Philippines (thank you Rotary!), I can attest to the effectiveness of citizen diplomacy at improving relations between people, even if their respective governments suck.
What I found even more heartening were the comments posted in response to the story (go over and check them out!) There are probably 40 comments at the time I'm writing this and they are overwhelmingly positive. I counted 1 negative (some dumbass compared it to playing against the Nazis before WWII), 1 incoherent response, 1 cautious response and 1 asshole. Among the positive comments, there were even some comments from Iranians, one of whom pointed out there are at least 12 Americans who play professionally in Iran.
From the article:
Despite rising tensions with Iran, the U.S. State Department today announced that it has invited Iranian athletes to compete in the United States as part of a "people-to-people exchange" program....
"With the generous support of Congress, we're in the second year of successful people-to-people exchange programs....
"We're committed to using educational, cultural, and sports exchanges to help rebuild bridges between our two societies after 30 years of estrangement."
My God... did you imagine that there are still officials in our government who can talk sense and not get fired by Dick Cheney?
Later this month, at Salt Lake City Community College, six NBA teams will gather to play a series of exhibition games... along with the Islamic Republic of Iran. That's right, round ballers from the last member of George Bush's 'Axis of Evil' will battle the Jazz and the Mavs in games scheduled for mid-July. As it turns out, the Iranians--Asian league champs--are competing in the Olympics in Beijing, starting August 10, and thought they’d throw down first with a little b-ball against America’s finest, the NBA.
Well, these aren't quite America's finest, they're guys trying to get into the Nba, but they might be good games to watch. The commenters at MSNbC seem to think the American teams will roll on Iran.
The NBA won’t reveal much. Brian McIntyre, the NBA’s Senior Vice President of Basketball Communications, said the Islamic Republic of Iran Basketball Federation (IRIBF) called to say it was interested in playing its national team in a game or two against an NBA team on the way to Beijing....
McIntyre said the league called the State Department to ask what to do. After all, the U.S. doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Iran.... The State Department, which is all in favor of people-to-people (or in this case, player-to-player) relations, encouraged the idea, McIntyre said.
And so the NBA approached the Jazz, which sponsors the Rocky Mountain Revue, a summer basketball league for NBA hopefuls...
U.S. officials believe that the request came from the highest levels in Iran, and is part of an attempt by Iran to tamp down tensions between the two countries. In fact, Iranian officials told NBC News that hardliners in the Islamic Republic opposed the overture. But moderates in the Iranian government prevailed.
The Iranians will be playing at 2:15 p.m. on July 19th against Dallas, and at 7 p.m. on July 21st against Utah. If you're in the Salt Lake City area from July 19~21, drop by one, or both of the games for me! I doubt they cost much and you can probably go introduce yourself to an honest-to-God Iranian and leave them with a good impression of America.