Dutch basketball gets it right

VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - The victories on the court always matter.

But so do the victories off it.

The Netherlands have enjoyed both in recent times.

This is a country that is on the international basketball map once again, for the first time in a very long time.

Toon van Helfteren's team swept both Montenegro and Bulgaria and finished second in their qualifying group behind Israel last summer to clinch a spot in the EuroBasket.

The achievement was a significant one.

The Dutch will play at a EuroBasket for the first time in a quarter of a century.

Watch this and feel something stir inside you.

If you can't feel the emotion, the possibilities, the excitement, the drama, my friend, you do not have a pulse.

So that team and those players who made it through qualifying, without any shred of doubt, they're heroes.

Equally important for Dutch basketball, though, is what has been going on off the court.

A structure has been put in place to help the men's national team compete on a level playing field.

Foundations are providing financial backing.

There are two significant bodies that are helping the Dutch.

Firstly, former players have decided they want to give something back to the Netherlands and help it become more competitive on the European scene.

They have formed the Stichting Nederlands Mannen Team and signed a five-year contract with the Dutch Basketball Federation to run the men's national team.

The president of the Stichting NMT foundation is Bert Kragtwijk, a former Netherlands player.

Five out of the seven members of the 'Stichting NMT' board have played for the Dutch national team.

The other two have made contributions to the game.

Prominent names in Dutch basketball from the past like Rik Smits and Geerit Hammink have been involved with Stichting NMT.

"This project is unique for Dutch basketball," said Dutch national team star Kees Akerboom.

"Now that good people with the right attitude step up, you see what can all be made possible."

The other significant development happened last week.

Telecommunications giants KPN launched a social initiative called TEAMKPN Sportfonds, which sponsors team sports that are not supported by the Dutch Olympic committee.

The men's basketball team and the waterpolo team are the first to receive money.

TEAMKPN can sponsor the two teams for a total amount of €200,000.

This funding is for one year only.

The hope is that other sponsors will jump on board and put money into the TEAMKPN fund to make it bigger.

And Dutch basketball, too, will seek their own sponsors for longer-term deals, like Paul Meijering Stainless Steel, who have signed sponsorship contract that runs for more than a year.

What needs to be remembered is that the Stichting NMT and TEAMKPN Sportfonds are important parts of the process but there are others helping.

In addition to the Dutch Basketball Federation still being involved, so is the FEB (the club teams running the top division in the Netherlands).

The FEB has covered a large part of the program costs the past two years. The rest of the costs in 2013 and 2014 were covered by a couple of sponsors: TV company Sport1 and Spalding.

It's been a team effort to get the Dutch national team where it is now, and there is still a lot of hard work to be done.

The Stichting NMT is also already running a Netherlands B program, which is always a good sign for a national team.

There is a palpable sense of relief for Van Helfteren, one of his country's greatest players, because restrictions brought about by a lack of financial support had dogged him and his teams in past years.

"I have put my wishes on the table as far as running the program and preparing for EuroBasket," he said.

"Everything I wanted has been made possible. So we're talking serious money."

"So all the money that comes in - especially TEAMKPN Sportfonds - is more than welcome," he added.

I remember talking to shooting Arvin Slagter last November, and how elated he still was to be in a national team program that was going to be at the EuroBasket.

"It’s been awesome, a little bit of euphoria, even," he said.

"It’s been a long time since the Dutch team has been on a platform like the European Championships."

Even so, at the time, the financing was not in place.

Now, the money is there and players like Slagter, who was on Thursday named in the Netherlands squad by Van Helfteren, can focus on matters on the court.

He and the others, who face a real beast of an opening round at the EuroBasket in Zagreb against Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, the F.Y.R of Macedonia (MKD) and Georgia, can think about getting ready for those games and not worry if they're going to have a decent meal after practice or games.

And that's the way it should be.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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