At the time these lines were being written, a very important basketball event was taking place in Turkey: the 2010 World Championship held by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). The tournament ended on Sunday, but as a basketball fan I will still say that, despite the outcome, there were two winners: Greece and Turkey.

...a very important basketball event is taking place in Turkey: the 2010 World Championship held by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA)...This event could be the opportunity Greece and Turkey need to get closer to each other, not in terms of high-level politics, but in terms of initiatives coming from below, from the grassroots.

US and Iran faced off at the World Basketball Championships here on Wednesday night, electrifying Iranian fans and offering a rare opportunity for people of the two arch-enemy nations to meet face to face. It was the latest instance of sports diplomacy first used by both sides in the late 1990s to ease US-Iran hostility.

Cheerleaders donned black leggings and white T-shirts for a world championship basketball match between Iran and the United States in Istanbul on Wednesday to respect cultural sensitivities...Patrick Baumann, secretary-general of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), said "special arrangements" had been made with the dancers' dress on Wednesday.

Coaches and players often travel the globe -- Asia, Africa, Europe -- this time of year to spread the NBA gospel, promoting basketball camps that attract adoring youngsters eager to learn the game. Rarely do they find anything as diverse and far-reaching as they do in the little hamlet of Zofingen, Switzerland, which becomes a very popular basketball melting pot for two weeks every summer.

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard is in Bangalore and Delhi from next Tuesday training the senior men’s national team and carrying out basketball clinics as part of the Mahindra NBA Challenge, a basketball league started up this summer to get young people interested in the game.

As part of the United States Sports Envoy Program, NBA and WNBA veterans Sam “Big Smooth” Perkins and Sue Wicks gathered with Indonesian basketball figures in a Monday coaching clinic session for some 50 teenagers from around the capital.