The Concept of Sport in the Governance of the Jr. NBA Program (Montevideo, Uruguay 2023–2024).

Abstract

This article presents the conceptual map developed regarding the notion of sport in a public sports policy in the department of Montevideo, Uruguay (analyzed in the years 2023–2024). The Jr. NBA program, linked to the development of basketball in the country, has a direct relationship with the National Basketball Association, NBA, which primarily brings together teams from the United States. The political division and administration in Uruguay between the national government, the departmental government, and the heterogeneity of municipalities in Montevideo, where the analyzed departmental program is implemented, presents a particular scenario for the study of sport as a public management issue. Citizen participation, limited by ambiguous legislation, is merely observational, while the program's relationship with the NBA's development plan in Latin America opens space for the participation of private actors. Globalization and sports diplomacy reinforce their influence, highlighting a State with reduced margins of action regarding the control of sport, in the face of governance driven by the private sector. In this context, it becomes necessary to conceptualize sport when it is positioned at the center of what we can call an exercise of publicization of basketball in the country. Based on the analysis of official documents of the departmental sports policy and interviews with actors involved in the Jr. NBA in its formulation and implementation, different perspectives on the sports phenomenon are evident, but they share the fact that the concept does not appear formulated as a problematic axis or as a source of tensions in the discourse.