Just as business has since the advent of computers and the beginning of the Information Age, sports have become a global presence. Exhibition games are played overseas, and Major League Baseball has even begun their regular season in the Far East. As each day passes the world of sports grows larger and larger, with its reach stretching further and further across the globe. Just as the business end of sports becomes more global, so to does the fan base.

Anyone can recognize that the NBA scored a public relations coo de?tat a few years ago when the Rockets landed Yao Ming. The same could have been said when the Yankees broke open a marketing pot of gold when they signed Hideki Matsui to play in pinstripes, and more recently when the Red Sox basked in the green glow of Dice-K. But what has helped further the globalization more than anything or anyone, even David Stern, is the fan.

The Information Age first re-invented the sports fan through domestic connections. A Packer fan from Miami could follow Green Bay just as religiously as someone in Wisconsin could, without even setting foot in Lambeau Field. I have been able to connect with fellow Pacer fans and the team itself through the internet and other technological features that have transcended the eight hundred mile barrier between yours truly and the heart of Indianapolis.

In the past ten years or so those haven?t been the only barriers broken down. People from all across the world are able to access information on American sports, the same way we are in the nation itself. People from West Germany are able to follow the many exploits of Dirk Nowitzki, and countless others, using the internet and its many sports outlets. That?s where Josef Aydin comes into play.

I begin exchanging e-mails with Josef, a 19-year old high school senior from Turkey, when I selected him to win a contest I ran in the Scoop Du Jour a few months back. Josef is a die-hard NBA fan, but suffers from a lack of basketball coverage in Turkey (except for news on natives like Mehmet Okur and Hedo Turkoglu). Thanks to sites like RealGM.com, and countless others, Josef is able to keep tabs on all that is going on in the world of NBA basketball. It doesn?t matter that he?s thousands and thousands of miles from an NBA arena, he has his finger on the pulse of the league nonetheless.

Soccer is the sport of choice in Turkey, but basketball is steadily increasing in popularity. The emergence of Turkish players in the American professional ranks cannot be hurting the sport?s cause. Josef commented that, ?There are a few Turks in the NBA and people here WORSHIP them.? Basketball fans are able to follow games on NBA TV and other local channels that will occasionally broadcast a game or two. This year?s All-Star festivities in Las Vegas were a huge television event as well, due in large part to the naming of Okur to the Western Conference squad.

Josef, like nearly all of his generation, began following basketball during the days of Michael Jordan. He was even lucky enough to catch Jordan?s last game at Madison Square Garden, while living in New York for a short while. But he doesn?t discriminate when it comes to sports. He follows the Mets as well as the Knicks via the internet. ?I?m probably one of the few people who follow MLB and the NFL this far outside of the United States. The games are often re-runs because of the huge time difference, but sometimes I find myself staying up until the wee hours of the morning to catch a game live,? said Aydin.

Thirty, maybe even twenty, years ago something like this would have never been possible. For one, I would have never gotten to know Josef, but more importantly he may have never gotten to know American professional sports. When countryman Mehmet Okur struck it big with the Jazz how would Josef have known? Maybe using a few newspaper clippings here and there, but nothing as comprehensive and vast as the wealth of information available on the internet.

Despite the thousands of miles between our keyboards and the ones in Turkey, we truly do live in a small world. Josef told me a story about what happened when Ethan Telfair, yes that?s Sebastian?s brother, enrolled in his local Turkish high school. Ethan was there with his older brother, Jamel Thomas, who began playing for a local team (the same one Zaza Pachulia once played for). ?It was really awesome to have an NBA star?s brother in my school and that I was able to see him everyday. He was pretty cocky though, I guess it runs in the family.?

If it wasn?t for the globalization of this sports fan, we would have never known.

How has the globalization of sports changed the way you look at things? [email protected]