Deaf basketball

Deaf basketball is basketball played by deaf people. Sign language is used to communicate whistle blows and communication between players.

National associations

The game played by deaf people is organized with national and international associations including Deaf Basketball Australia,[1] Deaf Basketball UK[2] and United States of America Deaf Basketball.[3][4]

Players

Deaf basketball has gained great visibility because of athlete like Lance Allred who played basketball with the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Cleveland Cavaliers. Allred is Hard-of-hearing, with a 75-80% hearing loss wearing a hearing aid. He later on continued to play basketball professionally in the European basketball leagues.

Another high-profile deaf basketball player is the Slovenian professional basketball player Miha Zupan, born with impairment similar to that of Allred, yet plays power forward at highest professional level in Europe.

Deaf International Basketball Federation

The Deaf International Basketball Federation (DIBF) is a world governing body for international deaf basketball with support of International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and in cooperation with Deaflympics and its confederations. In February 2003, it was recognized at the Congress of Comité International des Sports de Surds (i.e. the International Committee of the Deaf Sports during the Winter Deaflympics in Sundsvall, Sweden as an independent association composed of the National Organisations governing deaf basketball. DIBF encourages the growth and development of deaf basketball in all nationals of the world through an organized program of education and instruction. The Federation schedules and conducts all international contests and championships in deaf basketball in cooperation with the Deaflympics (The Deaf Olympics) and its confederations. DIBF also maintains a documented history of the basketball by recording and reporting on all major international contests from the inception of international competitions to the present.

References
  1. "DBA - Deaf Basketball Australia". Archived from the original on 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
  2. DBUK - Deaf BasketBall of the United Kingdom
  3. USADB - United States of America Deaf Basketball
  4. Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, pp. 282-286
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