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

Abstract

This article presents the conceptual map developed around the notion of sport
within a public sports policy in the department of Montevideo, Uruguay (analyzed during the years
2023–2024). The Jr. NBA program, linked to the development of basketball in the country and directly
connected to the National Basketball Association (NBA), which primarily includes teams from the
United States, is the focus of analysis. The political division and administration in Uruguay—between
the national government, the departmental level, and the heterogeneous municipalities of
Montevideo, where the analyzed program is implemented—presents a unique scenario for studying
sport as a public management issue. Citizen participation, limited by ambiguous legislation, remains
mostly passive, while the program's alignment with the NBA's development plan in Latin America
paves the way for the involvement of private actors. Globalization and sports diplomacy further
reinforce their influence, revealing a state with limited capacity to control sport in the face of
governance led by the private sector. In this context, it becomes necessary to conceptualize sport
when it is positioned at the center of what could be described as an exercise in the publification of
basketball in the country. Based on the analysis of official documents from the departmental sports
policy and interviews with actors involved in the design and implementation of Jr. NBA, the study reveals differing perspectives on the sports phenomenon, yet all share the characteristic that the
concept is not formulated as a problematic axis or as a source of tensions within the discourse.