Finding our place in sport’s world order

YOU might not have known but right now the best player on the best basketball team in the whole world is German, not American.

You should hardly beat yourself up though if it escaped your attention that on Sunday night, Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks won the NBA championship. Sporting indifference isn’t confined to Ireland. Most of Europe wouldn’t have known Leinster were crowned kings of the continent in Cardiff last month, just as most of the world will be unaware of Ireland’s or anyone else’s exploits in the upcoming Rugby World Cup.

In Ireland we rightly take great pride in our rugby players. For more than a decade now, the likes of O’Gara and O’Driscoll have represented the best of us, as in us as a people rather than merely the best of the rugby-playing population.