Sport can create a powerful sense of belonging - bringing people together across cultures, backgrounds and differences, giving young people the confidence to believe in themselves and providing communities with a shared purpose.

Paulina Fritz - through her work with FIBA Foundation’s Basketball For Good, which now reaches over 376,000 young people every year with 49% female participation - gets to see first-hand how supporting a global community of organisations and Youth Leaders using basketball as a tool can positively address social challenges and create meaningful change.

Now, in this exclusive interview, Paulina shares her thoughts on the emotion and power of sport, and shines a light on the most rewarding aspect of all - seeing so many people that have been inspired by Basketball For Good taking ownership of their futures, continuing to create change long after their first encounter with this exciting initiative.

How do you define the inherent value of sport?

From my perspective, the inherent value of sport lies in its unique ability to bring people together across cultures, backgrounds and differences - creating a sense of belonging and shared purpose.

Sport - and basketball in particular - helps young people develop confidence, resilience, teamwork, leadership and wider life skills that extend far beyond the court.

Ultimately, the value of sport is not only in winning games, but in empowering people to grow, connect and create positive change in their lives and communities.

What do the emotions that come from sport mean to you?

The emotions that come from sport are deeply connected to community, teamwork and a sense of belonging. Through basketball, I have seen how shared experiences - whether wins, losses, challenges or celebrations - can create bonds that feel like family and bring people together across different backgrounds.

These emotions remind us that sport is not just about competition. It is about feeling connected, supported and part of something bigger than ourselves.

But it is also about being able to navigate emotions and turn them into positive actions - that, for me, is one of the most powerful things about sport.

What was your main motivation to pursue a career at FIBA Foundation?

FIBA Foundation’s Basketball For Good unit perfectly combines my passion for basketball with my passion for creating social change.

I participated in a virtual Youth Leadership program organized by FIBA Foundation and during that time a Basketball For Good internship position opened - my application was successful and I was then able to stay as a full-time employee responsible for coordinating the Basketball For Good programs afterwards. The rest is history, as they say!

Could you share your most memorable or rewarding experience in your current role?

One of the most rewarding parts of my role is seeing our FIBA Foundation Youth Leaders grow, develop and thrive as they lead their own Basketball For Good projects and create meaningful change in their communities.

Their perseverance in the face of challenges and their ability to find creative solutions with limited resources is incredibly inspiring. It is a privilege to play even a small role in supporting their journey.

What makes it especially meaningful is that many of them continue to share updates many years after attending our workshops - so we are able to witness the long-term impact of their work and stay connected to their stories. Those relationships are incredibly special.

What are some of the challenges you face in your current role?

One of the biggest challenges is keeping pace with the rapid growth of the Basketball For Good community while ensuring that everyone continues to feel connected, supported and engaged.

As more organisations, Youth Leaders and partners join the movement, it becomes increasingly complex to maintain meaningful relationships and create opportunities for collaboration across such a diverse global network.

But it is also an exciting challenge - the growth of the community means there are more people using basketball to tackle important social issues, and more opportunities to learn from one another.

One of your activities includes ‘Propose a Project’ - tell us more

Through our annual Propose a Project platform, we provide financial, equipment and mentoring support to National Basketball Federations and community organisations across the world that run their own Basketball For Good projects.

In 2026, we are supporting 100 projects from 79 different countries, all using basketball to create positive impact in areas such as health and wellbeing, gender equality, inclusion of refugees and people with disabilities and climate action.

What I love about the programme is that the projects are rooted in their local communities.
The people leading them understand the challenges around them and know how basketball can become a powerful tool for creating change.

Molten is providing basketballs for these projects. Could you give us a specific example of how they are being used?

The generous support of Molten enables us to provide more than 4,000 basketballs every year to deserving projects from all over the world.

One example is the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, where we shipped basketballs for a huge basketball tournament organised to reunite the refugee and host communities and foster social cohesion.

In many countries, smaller-sized basketballs are not readily available, so Size 5 and Size 6 basketballs are especially in demand for projects focused on children and girls.

A special highlight is the Size 4 Mini Basketball - a smaller basketball with a special child-friendly, colourful design that we developed together with Molten.

It has become extremely popular in many different countries. And the impact continues long after the initial project. In most cases, the basketballs continue to be used for several years, enabling many children and young people to discover basketball and fall in love with the game.

That is something very tangible that we can give to communities.

You also have a personal connection with Japan - we’re excited to know more!

I completed my Master’s in Sport and Olympic Studies at the University of Tsukuba September 2019 to March 2021.

A lot of that time was influenced by COVID-19, which made it difficult to be far away from home for such a long period. There were 17 students from 15 different countries in our programme, and everyone was facing different challenges.

Despite that, my time in Japan was still incredibly enjoyable. The respectful culture made a big impression on me, and although many activities had to take place under certain conditions and precautions, we were still able to spend a lot of time outdoors.

We played sports, had picnics in the park, visited different cities and went skiing in Nagano. We also rented a basketball court several times.

There were certainly a lot of emotions involved during that period, but our passion for sport connected us and enabled us to build relationships across such different cultures.

We even had a special karaoke group with classmates from Singapore, Botswana, Tanzania, Guatemala and, of course, Japan!

Those are memories I will always treasure.

What does ‘feel the emotion’ mean to you?

For me, ‘feel the emotion’ captures something fundamental about why sport matters.
Sport creates moments that we remember - the excitement of a competition, the disappointment of a loss, the joy of achieving something together, or simply the feeling of being part of a team.

But those emotions don't exist only on the court. They can inspire confidence, create friendships, build communities and motivate people to take action.

That is particularly important in Basketball For Good. We want people to experience the joy and emotion of basketball, but also to harness those emotions to create something positive beyond the game.

During your studies, you had the opportunity to play recreational basketball. How did that make you feel?

Basketball was one of the things that helped us connect. There is something very special about playing together.

You don't necessarily need to speak the same language or come from the same cultural background. Once you are on the court, you immediately share something.

I experienced this again during my internship at Panasonic, when I had the opportunity to visit a local primary school and share my basketball and international experiences with the students.

We had a shooting competition against each other - and the primary school students won!
That competition immediately broke the ice. It was a perfect example of what basketball can do. Cultural and language barriers that might otherwise have taken time to overcome were suddenly much less important.

We were simply playing together, having fun and sharing the emotion of the game.

Looking ahead, what are your future goals and the message you hope to convey through sport?

I would like to continue growing the global Basketball For Good community and help create social impact and solve societal issues through basketball.

Educating and empowering Youth Leaders and local community organisations is a huge part of that.

At the same time, every exchange with like-minded people from around the world is incredibly rewarding. I learn and grow every day through those relationships.

And there is one particularly special goal for me. As someone from Germany - the host of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 - who spent a year and a half in Japan and fell in love with Japanese culture, I would love to work towards the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2030 in Japan.

I want to help build the long-term social impact and legacy of that event and explore what can be achieved when basketball, communities and partners come together.

And hopefully, we can do that together with Molten.

Because the future of basketball is not only about the games we play. It is about the people we bring together, the communities we strengthen and the positive change we create.

That is where I feel the emotion of sport most strongly.