GUANGZHOU, China - How's this for a snapshot of globalization? Next season,
about 100 of the NBA's 450 players ¡ª nearly one in four ¡ª will be from outside
the United States.
NBA Commissioner David
Stern speaks during an interview in Guangzhou, China's southern Guangdong
province Sunday, Aug 6, 2006. NBA Commissioner David Stern says he expects
the Hornets will play all of their home games in New Orleans by the
2007-2008 season. The team has scheduled just six of its home games for
New Orleans in the upcoming season, with the other 35 in Oklahoma City,
where the Hornets temporarily relocated after Hurricane Katrina. Team
owner George Shinn expects the team to return home permanently, but said
last month he wouldn't rule out a move
elsewhere.[AP] |
And even NBA commissioner David Stern, an architect of the league's push into
international markets, is startled at how fast the rest of the world has come
along.
"I'm surprised at the number of elite athletes from around the world who are
in the NBA as of 2006," Stern said Sunday during an interview in Guangzhou,
China, where the U.S. national team is playing a series of warmup games leading
to this month's world championships in Japan.
Boosted by the popularity of Chinese center Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets,
the NBA's China business is growing by 30 percent each year, Stern said. The
league's China operations already include three offices with about 50 staff and
is destined to grow.
"My guess is we'll double it in size by the Beijing Olympics" in 2008, Stern
said. "The China market is our most important and largest market outside the
United States."
The rise of foreign talent has diminished the dominance the Americans held
when their top pros first started playing in international competition. It's a
far cry from the days when the Dream Team surged through the 1992 Barcelona
Olympics.
That's put the U.S. players under new pressure, Stern said.
"To recognize that if you don't stay at the top of your game you're going to
get knocked off your perch: It's all very good from a competitive perspective,"
Stern said.
The U.S. team competing in Guangzhou includes LeBron James of the Cleveland
Cavaliers, Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets and Shane Battier of the
Rockets.
Stern declined to give a dollar figure for the NBA's China revenues, saying
the league's total foreign business is tiny compared with the U.S. operations.
"It's just going to continue to grow," Stern said, referring to the China
business. "It's a very still substantially untapped market for us."
Stern said the NBA will increase its marketing partners in China, sell more
merchandise and expand its presence online, possibly offering live streaming of
NBA games or downloads of archived games.
