CHARLOTTE (Steve Goldberg's Wheel World) - If a ball goes through the hoop but no one knows about it, does it still count?

Of course, I'm paraphrasing the much-quoted existential question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?", which itself is derived from the 1710 writings of philosopher George Berkeley.

My point for bringing this up is that while there is a lot of great wheelchair basketball going on, much of that happens in relative media silence. This includes events on the national team level that you may never know about.

A big part of my mission with this column is to facilitate awareness, knowledge and understanding about the wheelchair game just as my colleagues do the same for the sundry geographic, gender, and age segments of the sport around the world.

But first we have to get the information ourselves. For big league basketball that's covered by major media - FIBA's global and regional events; pro leagues like the NBA, Liga Endesa or Lega A - that's generally not a problem.

In wheelchair basketball however, the information flow ranges from excellent to that proverbial tree in the empty forest. Easter weekend provided examples of both.

In the forest I speak of, the tree has to be knocked down, meaning that just as important as organizing the event itself might be, so must be the effort to let interested people know about it. And with the growing success of the Paralympics and IWBF events around the world, that audience is growing.

There was an impressive Easter wheelchair basketball tournament in Belgium last weekend featuring the national men's teams of Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, and the Netherlands. I only learned of it because of the press releases and social media effort that I get regularly from Canada and Great Britain. The host was Parantee, the Flemish Federation of Disability Sports, which is also presenting tournaments for national teams in goalball and boccia.

I can tell you the result - Great Britain won - but not much else as the only available information online was the scores. With the final ranking of the round robin tournament not posted for at least several hours after the final game, I had to sort it out myself to share it on Twitter. On top of that, there are no boxscores or any kind of statistical information available. My emails to Parantee received no response.

Until major media pays attention, a tournament like this featuring the current Paralympic, World and European champions, all top flight teams with strong fan bases, it's up to tournament organizers to put this information out there. In the digital world, social media will do the rest.

Making a lot of noise was British Wheelchair Basketball (BWB) which hosted a Tri-Nations women's tournament featuring the home team with Paralympic champs Germany and Japan. BWB made the tournament super accessible to media and fans alike with full results and stats available here.

It's not just events. Well-informed team sites are essential to the growth of the game. Sponsors will demand it as online presence and the ability to promote through social media continues to grow in their marketing mix. Some sites are strong. Some are evolving. Most need to and some don't exist.

Maybe it's a Commonwealth thing. Three of the best belong to Australia, Canada, and Great Britain.

Basketball Australia (BA) is an example of a fully integrated situation where all of the country's senior national teams - Boomers, Opals, Rollers, Gliders - standing or sitting, are under one roof and promoted equally in online and social media.

In Canada, it's more of a separate but equal presentation where Canada Basketball and Wheelchair Basketball Canada (WBC) each have their own sites. They are related - WBC is a non-voting member of Basketball Canada - but they have different online identities. That said, the WBC site is both functional and balanced across the realm of its constituency with all the necessary information of a governing body and the editorial punch to promote the game to current fans and those new to the game.

The British Wheelchair Basketball site is similar to Canada in that it's separate from the standing game but equally impressive in its presentation and depth. It's another excellent example for others to follow.

It comes down to this. If you want attention for your sport or your event, don't wait for it. Go get it. To borrow from baseball, it's a Field of Dreams scenario - build it and they will come.

Steve Goldberg

FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

FIBA takes no responsibility and gives no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of the content and opinion expressed in the above article.

To help make this column as inclusive as possible, please send any national or international event information, story suggestions, or comments to wheelworldmail@gmail.com.