To celebrate the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) 75th anniversary, the league announced an initiative to refurbish basketball courts across Latin America. Specifically, the NBA hired artists to paint beautiful murals on the courts that represented the connection between the NBA and communities.
Using basketball courts to display art is a growing practice around the world. Players (current and retired), foundations, nonprofits, brands, and architecture firms have used basketball court murals to revitalize a public space and tell a community’s story.
Basketball courts are also important public spaces for interaction and recreation. In some communities, they serve as venues for public festivities and gatherings. The NBA’s initiative is a form of creative placemaking—using art and culture to inject life into public spaces—and a form of brand urbanism—strategically promoting the sport while providing a community benefit.
But few details about how the NBA worked with the communities have emerged. Meaningful community engagement is key to ensure community ownership over a project and for external institutions to avoid becoming (or being perceived as) an outside intrusion or imposition.
Based on interviews with key stakeholders and literature review, I analyzed the project in Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico, as a case study for how the NBA pursued community engagement. The case in Oaxaca illustrates that communities involved with sports are uniquely positioned to lead placemaking efforts. Developing partnerships, establishing commitments, and sustaining engagement are key priorities for organizations looking to support similar efforts.
How the NBA partnered with the communities
The league hired a consulting team in Mexico with court renovation and placemaking expertise to lead the efforts in the country—selecting the most suitable courts, building relationships, and renovating the courts. With the exception of project ideation, community members were involved at every step.
Ixtlán de Juárez, a city in the mountainous region of southern Mexico known as the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, is one of many Indigenous communities where basketball is deeply ingrained in the culture and public life. Because the mountainous region has limited flat land, basketball has become one of the main forms of recreation instead of more popular national sports, like soccer. As such, the basketball court is considered an essential element of the built environment.
Basketball tournaments are crucial to community festivities and a source of regional identity and cohesion among Indigenous communities. In addition to basketball, the main court in Ixtlán de Juárez is used for civic events, religious festivities, and as shelter.
Before selection, the team hired by the NBA held conversations with the Oaxaca state government, the Ixtlán de Juárez local government, and key actors in the basketball community about their community’s candidacy. Local leaders welcomed this news and worked to convince the NBA to choose their community.
The selection process involved a set of commitments between the NBA and Ixtlán de Juárez to build trust and ensure all had a stake in the project.
The first commitment involved resources. The NBA had the budget for only one court, but the Ixtlán de Juárez site included two courts and bleachers. The community committed to supporting the NBA team with resources of their own, such as providing housing and food, so the NBA could fund the full site.
Local leagues and basketball schools also committed to organize slots for youth basketball classes and adult leagues, along with a plan for programming in the following years to ensure the court benefited the greatest number of people for many years. The NBA committed to supporting the physical maintenance of the court for a set number of years in addition to using sustainable materials, such as recycled fishing nets for the hoops and long-lasting paint.
Community engagement is about developing ownership over projects
The design selection for the artwork involved hiring local artists and soliciting community feedback on the most representative elements of Ixtlán de Juárez and Oaxaca. The final court design represents the passion for the game from birth to death and how this passion is connected to key Oaxacan cultural symbols. A local leader also shared that the design reflects their aspirations as a community, with the purple and pink hues viewed as symbols for gender equality and fair play.
The NBA engaged community members, particularly children, in the intervention—from cleaning and preparing the court to painting and activating the space. For the inauguration of the court, the NBA brought world renowned coaches to teach a clinic for children and involved local coaches as assistants.
By including kids in the renovation of their court, they will care for it and they will see that they themselves can make their spaces beautiful. You also build conscientious leaders that can be role models for future generations. You create a cycle of positive energy.
These organized activities were supported by a community where tequio, or communal work, is a part of daily life and a civic duty. The community has set up a plan for continual court cleaning, in which local teams are responsible for cleaning the court on specific days. Similarly, the basketball community convinced local authorities to prohibit certain activities on the court that could damage the mural.
A deeper community impact will require sustained engagement
A representative from the NBA shared that the league plans to expand their court renovation initiative to more communities. As the program grows, the league can further incorporate best practices in equitable placemaking. For example, because of their expertise and enthusiasm, local partners can be incorporated into advisory boards to serve as “guiding lenses” for future projects.
Plans don’t currently exist for more engagement with the communities already served (apart from maintenance support). But interviewees made it clear that the renovated courts have enormous potential as platforms for further engagement and programming.
We would love for the NBA to support with maintenance. But do you know what we would like more? To maintain the bond that has been developed between the NBA and Ixtlán de Juárez. The NBA should keep coming back with more programs and projects and also deepen ties with other communities. The enthusiasm is so much, there are no words to express it.
For deeper community impact, the NBA could consider establishing mechanisms for learning and evaluation, particularly incorporating community-based, participatory evaluation practices. These methods can build community buy-in and identify needs and opportunities for investment. Parks can be made safer and more welcoming by investing in public lighting, and access to basketball can be made more equitable by expanding public spaces for play.
Sports are an effective platform to approach creative placemaking
For people involved in sports, creative placemaking is a platform to dignify the spaces that allow their passion to manifest. Interviewees connected the values that basketball cultivates—such as teamwork, perseverance, and discipline—to how they approached the court renovation. And art served as a tool to build a sense of community by tying a common identity to a place. “Art allows people to represent their feelings and their culture,” an interviewee shared with me. “People use art as a bridge to portray their passion. And in that passion, there is sports.”
The integration of sports and arts to improve the public realm has untapped potential, and organizations like the NBA are uniquely positioned to support communities in that journey.
