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RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJS #0078/01 1900632
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 080632Z JUL 08
FM AMCONSUL SURABAYA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0243
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0229
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0125
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY 0006
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0001
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0125
RUEHJS/AMCONSUL SURABAYA 0248

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SURABAYA 000078 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/PD, EAP/MTS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SCUL KPAO PREL ECON ID
SUBJECT: NBA BASKETBALL: SPORTS DIPLOMACY PARTNERSHIPS IN INDONESIA 
 
SURABAYA 00000078  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
THIS MESSAGE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIED. PLEASE PROTECT 
ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Deteksi Basketball League (DBL) has secured a 
multi-year partnership with the National Basketball Association 
(NBA).   This new agreement was facilitated through 
introductions and suggestions made by U.S. Consulate General 
Surabaya following meetings in Jakarta.  An NBA player and 
coaches will come to Surabaya August 23-24, 2008, to conduct 
clinics for high school players, both boys and girls.  The 
Surabaya program likely will be preceded or followed by a more 
commercial event in Jakarta, exact date(s) still TBD.  Deteksi 
is a youth-oriented journal published by the Surabaya-based Jawa 
Pos, Indonesia's largest newspaper conglomerate.  In subsequent 
years, the clinics will be expanded to full NBA summer camps for 
youth from all over Indonesia.  End Summary. 
Basketball Dreams Born in Kansas 
¶2. (SBU) Azrul Ananda, Commissioner of DBL and son of Jawa Pos 
Group founder and CEO Dahlan Iskan, fell in love with the 
American sport of basketball while attending high school in 
Kansas.  In 2004 he founded a high school basketball tournament 
in Surabaya.  School sports are not widely developed in 
Indonesia and there had never been a citywide tournament in any 
sport.  Azrul wanted to recreate some of the excitement and 
student-athlete opportunities he had seen in the U.S.  DBL was 
wildly successful from the start, attracting 95 teams comprising 
2,788 participants in its first year.  More than 20,000 fans 
watched games during the 16 days of the tournament.  It has 
grown steadily every year since and in 2007 included 220 teams 
from throughout East Java province with nearly 4,500 athletes. 
Attendance topped 55,000.  For 2008, DBL has dramatically 
increased its scope and ambitions, sponsoring competitions in 11 
cities and including the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, 
Sulawesi, and Lombok in addition to Java, where the league was 
born.  Finalists from each city and region will earn a trip to 
Surabaya for the DBL championship, which will include 64 teams 
and be modeled after "March Madness," the NCAA championship 
tournament in the U.S. 
NBA Comes to Indonesia for the First Time 
¶3. (SBU) One of the highlights of the Surabaya finals will be an 
appearance by Danny Granger, the high-flying forward/guard and 
leading scorer of the NBA's Indiana Pacers.  He is scheduled to 
toss up the jump ball at the championship game and conduct a 
skills clinic along with NBA coaches for selected players and 
coaches from Indonesian schools.  As part of the multi-year deal 
Deteksi has secured with the NBA, the clinic in 2009 will be 
expanded into a full NBA mini-camp for students invited from 
throughout Indonesia.  This agreement, negotiated through the 
NBA's regional office in Hong Kong, marks the first time that 
the NBA will sponsor any event in Indonesia.  Azrul's initial 
meeting with Hong Kong NBA officials was facilitated by the 
Consulate and was arranged during the NBA's visit to Indonesia 
to meet with Embassy officials and potential sponsors, among 
others. 
DBL's Unique Mission 
¶4. (SBU)  Azrul founded DBL with some specific guiding 
principles not often stressed in Indonesia.  First, all athletes 
must maintain a high academic standard at their schools to be 
eligible.  In addition to the athletes, student reporters from 
each school are also invited and sponsored to attend the 
tournament and write articles for their school newspapers.  As 
Deteksi is a publication affiliated with East Indonesia's 
largest newspaper, allowing budding student journalists to hone 
their reporting and writing skills is a priority for DBL. 
Schools are not charged any sort of participation or 
registration fee for joining the tournament.  Private sponsors 
such as Honda and Converse are brought in to defray costs, but 
the tournament itself does not make a profit.  Along these 
lines, probably the most remarkable aspect of DBL is its refusal 
to allow sponsorships from tobacco companies, alcoholic beverage 
makers, or "energy drinks" laced with caffeine and sometimes 
nicotine.  Almost every other large event in Indonesia, 
including professional sports and musical events, is sponsored 
by one or more of these industries.  Finally, DBL promotes 
girls' teams as much as boys, and gives them equal billing in 
the tournament. 
Professionalism 
¶5. (SBU) PAO Surabaya attended the opening of the 2007 DBL 
tournament and was impressed by the level of organization and 
the overall atmosphere and presentation of the games.  Player 
pictures and stats were displayed on big screens above the 
court, and team records and player statistics were updated 
real-time so that fans could follow the tournament's progress 
via the internet.  Student journalists conducted interviews with 
star players after the games, and well-known pop singers from 
 
SURABAYA 00000078  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Jakarta provided half-time entertainment.  Deteksi is currently 
involved in round-the-clock construction of a modern 5.5 million 
dollar, 5,000 seat arena to host the 2008 DBL finals.  Deteksi 
plans to have the arena completed in time to host the NBA 
delegation. 
¶6. (SBU) Sports diplomacy has the potential to cut across many 
barriers and reach key target audiences not always included in 
other outreach programs.  The high profile of the NBA and an 
American player visiting Indonesia could open doors to other 
sports diplomacy initiatives.  Australia's Embassy has 
successfully partnered with Deteksi in the past, and Australian 
Ambassador Bill Farmer is expected to announce a trip by 
selected DBL all-stars -- both boys teams and girls teams -- to 
play against high schools in Australia.  Similar youth exchanges 
with the U.S. would no doubt be welcomed and the American roots 
of basketball and prominence of the NBA globally make this a 
natural vehicle for effective sports diplomacy programs in the 
future. 
MCCLELLAND