Basketball Empire

Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff is a historian, writer and consultant specializing in the history of global sport, communications and diplomacy. She is the Director of FranceandUS, lectures on sports diplomacy at New York University, USA, and as a Research Associate at SOAS University London, UK, co-directed the Basketball in Diplomacy in Africa project. The author of The Making of Les Bleus: Sport in France 1958-2010 (2013) she has written on global sport for CNN International, The Washington Post and The New Yorker, amongst other publications. She holds a PhD in History from City University of New York, USA, an MA in Journalism and French Studies from NYU, USA, and a BA in International Affairs from The George Washington University, USA.

• AcknowledgementsGlossaryInterview SubjectsIntroduction Prologue Part I: Foundations1. “I Didn’t Go to France to Play Basketball” 1954-1960 2. Basketball in Crisis, 1960-68 3. Emulating an Idol, 1968-1984. Triangulating Foundations, 1968-1984 5. New Waves, 1984-92 6. From the Dream Team to Sydney, 1992-2000 Part II: French in the USAGlobal Scouting Report 7. Renaissance Man Boris Diaw 8. Transatlantic Champion Sandrine Gruda 9. “We Did It!” Nicolas Batum and Marine Johannès 10. Representing Paris Diandra Tchatchouang and Evan Fournier 11. From Cholet to the NBA Part III: Going GlobalGoing Global in the Twenty-First Century 12. Youth Pipelines 13. “Rubbing Shoulders” with African Basketball 14. Contributions to the NBA and WNBA 15. La Vie en Bleu Epilogue Selected Bibliography Index

With unparalleled originality, breadth, and research, the author - so well-versed in sports and diplomatic history on both sides of the Atlantic - shows how professional basketball swept across the world. The source material is breathtaking; the insights into Franco-American history are erudite and refreshing. Sports scholarship at its best!