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span class="caption">Ready: The Blue Team at the NBL All-Stars exhibition match lined up for the singing of the national anthem. The team featured former NBA players Ricky Pierce and Vin Baker. JP/Deanna Ramsay“Indonesia! Indonesia!” rang out in the almost-full stadium in Kelapa Gading, East Jakarta, as the seconds died down on the clock.

While much of the world, and Indonesia, remains mesmerized by the Euro 2012 soccer matches currently taking place in Poland and the Ukraine, another sport is beckoning for the country’s attention — basketball.

On Saturday, June 23, the Indonesian Warriors beat the San Miguel Beermen of the Philippines to bring the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) finals to a tie at 1-1. At the end of play, enthusiastic fans — some clad in white Warriors t-shirts — savored Indonesia’s first win over this Philippines team as red and white balloons cascaded down and glittery confetti swirled in the air.

But, Indonesia’s potential Southeast Asian basketball title is not the only basketball-related news emerging from the country this week.

On Wednesday evening, Bandung hosted a celebration of the sport featuring a game between former Indonesian greats, a shooting contest and a match combining four former NBA players with National Basketball League (NBL) stars selected via online voting.

Bandung’s C-Tra Arena teemed with young fans cheering at every three-point attempt, notable pass or move to dunk the ball, with Dimaz Muharri of Surabaya’s CLS Knights a crowd favorite who also has some heartthrob potential judging by the screams of the teenage girls in the stands.

Rangga, who was standing outside the stadium after the game with friends, said with no hesitation, “Kelly Purwanto and Jason Williams,” when asked who his favorite players were. Referencing Pelita Jaya Esia’s star and the former point guard of the Sacramento Kings and Miami Heat, the 16-year-old said Williams was an inspiration to basketball fans like himself. The Bandung native said he had been playing the sport since he was in elementary school, all the while gleefully clutching a basketball he had won that evening after it had been tossed into the crowd.

Williams, who arrived in Indonesia on Monday, told The Jakarta Post, “I want the kids I meet smiling, I try to make everyone happy.” The smiles were definitely infectious that night in Bandung, the young and boisterous crowd delighting in Williams’ artful passes and the passion for the game demonstrated by the players from both East and West.

Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA) president and Warriors owner Erick Thohir said, “From the demography of Southeast Asia, there are young populations in the region and basketball is one of the sports that will grow ... If you’re talking about soccer it’s been globalized, but basketball is a bit behind soccer. So the opportunity of developing basketball, I think, will be tremendously better in the future.”

In order to develop the sport, Warriors players hold events at local schools to promote the game when not at practice, and the NBL has been bringing former NBA players to Indonesia every year for the past few years for exhibition games and workshops with local youth, not to mention the NBL’s Development Basketball League and under-18 teams.

Former New York Knick Charles Smith, who is visiting the country for the second time, said at a press conference, “I just hope that by the end of this experience that we take away something from both sides. It’s not a matter that we’re better because we were in the NBA. I think our training was a lot different. I think if Indonesian players had the same training that we have they’d be just as good … If they love the game and we’re able to assist in any way some of the younger players become a lot better … we want to help.”

He cited Dimaz as someone to watch, the Surabaya guard playing gracefully, and fluidly alongside Williams, during the game in Bandung.

Smith, who is the president of the Professional Basketball Alumni Association, said of the group, “We use basketball as a bridge for cultural exchange.” For the sport in this country — a still rather recent import — cultural exchange is certainly fundamental.

In the ABL, its teams from Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are allowed three players from other countries in Southeast Asia and two from outside the region, meaning that squads in the league are frequently comprised of a mix of locals, Americans and sometimes imports from the Philippines.

On the very cosmopolitan nature of his team, the Warriors’ Mario Wuysang said, “This is great. The mix of different players from other countries, it’s good for the game. It’s good for Indonesians to see other players from other countries.”

Erick Thohir, who is also part owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, told the Post, “I set up the ABL with [AirAsia CEO] Tony Fernandes … We were both interested in setting up the ABL because both of us are big believers that Southeast Asia has the potential for growth in terms of not only the economy but also the cultures … I thought we need to build something for Asia, for Southeast Asia, because I think there is some uniqueness and some opportunities but we don’t have anything to make [the countries] work together — not on political issues it’s more on the fun side — but it’s still competition between them.”

Mario lived in the US most of his youth before returning to Indonesia to play basketball in 2003. Comparing the sport he played in Bloomington, Indiana, the notorious basketball town where he spent many years, and in Indonesia, he said, “It’s a lot different, just the style of play. The culture here is different, that affects the basketball game too. It took me a couple years to adjust but I got used to it.”

The league’s Most Valuable Player last year spoke of himself being “in between”, and that he had become the de facto translator on the team for new arrivals from the States with little experience of Indonesia because of his life in both worlds.

On events such as the match featuring former NBA players, Smith told the Post, “You can learn a lot, but at the end of the day with the cultural exchange it’s really all about not playing against so much but playing with and interacting. And basketball is just a tool. There’s other things that you can do but then working with people, dealing with people, it can go beyond that and so that’s what we look to do. We like to interact and be a part of the culture.”

And with these interactions and exchanges, what results are basketball roots that can deepen and extend, already evident in the screams of the crowd at both ABL and NBL games in the country.

Williams said of the sport that garnered him an NBA championship with the Miami Heat, “I want kids to love the game the way I love it.” With events like the ones this week and the many efforts to support youth basketball in the country, that kind of love is certainly being fostered and buoyed.

The West Virginia native said of basketball, “I love it. I’m gonna love it ‘til the day I die. I hope I can play forever.”

Mario, whose family hails from Manado, North Sulawesi, expressed a similar sentiment, “For me myself, I’m going to keep playing until the wheels fall off.”