Let me introduce you to Jujuy. It is the furthermost north province of Argentina, bordering the province of Salta, and Bolivia and Chile. It has an environment similar to Croatia and a population (600k) like Luxembourg.
Remarkably, from 500 to 6000 meters above sea level and from the deserts in the highlands to the Andes Mountains to tropical rainforests, you can find a basketball court throughout the province.
Basketball Courts in the Soccer Dominant Country
The population is also very varied and rich in cultures, as in all Latin America, we are the product of the mixture between the first inhabitants of these lands and those who were arriving over time.
There are basketball courts even in the smallest of settlements. And some with unique landscapes in the background that you won’t find anywhere else.
But that does not mean that basketball is a very popular sport in the region. Being in a country where soccer is the most popular sport and that crosses our culture we can see that in most of the hoops there is a soccer goal underneath.
The infrastructure is more present than the practice of the sport itself. Since apparently this investment by the state is present although the incentive to practice sports is lacking.
Finding Courts of the World
A few years ago I was on vacation in a beach town in Brazil and I wanted to hoop there because I knew there would be incredible landscapes to do so. That’s how I met Courts of the World and I was surprised that there is a community that shared basketball courts in that way.
When I returned from that vacation and satisfied with the experience of having played on such courts, I wanted to start doing the same where I lived. At the moment, I was studying in another part of the country where basketball is very good, but there is not much presence of public courts.
Tracking Down All the Courts
In my hometown, I was surprised that I crossed public courts everywhere and started marking them on the map and uploading some of them to the website.
Going through the satellite map I found many more courts and I did not stop until I found all of them in all the towns of the province after much work going through the satellite maps. The result was surprising there were courts in practically every corner of the province.
Reconnaissance Trips
Being aware of this and seeing the world movement where basketball courts are shared, renovated and contemplated, I decided to take some reconnaissance trips to start getting to know these courts in person and share it with the local community and basketball lovers around the world.
I have made a trip along one of the main routes of the province visiting many localities but I would need a few more trips to go through it completely and be able to expose the variety and the most remote courts. I think that so far I have visited almost 10% of the courts.
What’s Next in My Journey?
All this does not end here or visiting and photographing all the courts in the Jujuy province. As you can see, we are talking about great untapped potential. I’m not just interested in streetball or public outdoor courts. There is so much to do for Jujuy basketball and sports in the communities.
I would love to be able to renovate courts in communities one day like many projects around the world do (Project Backboard / Hoops Outside / Veniceball / Project in the Paint) applying works of art on the surfaces of basketball courts and promote this beautiful sport.
You can see a lot more photos of basketball courts at Javier Bach’s Instagram accounts @hoopsargentina and @jujuyball. You can also look at his Courts of the World page at JB27.
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