An All-Star idea

The NBA brought in so many big names for this year's China Games, you could be forgiven for looking on the court and thinking you were watching an All-Star Game.

What could be better?

Well, how about the actual All-Star Game?

Let's think big for a minute.

The lone downside to this year's two-game exhibition series between the defending champion Miami Heat and the young and popular Los Angeles Clippers is that it's going to be difficult to live up to in future iterations.

So instead of trying to match it next time around, how about blowing right past and bringing one of the league's marquee events to Beijing?

It's hard to find a reason not to.

The league clearly wants to continue building its brand in China. But bringing in, say, regular-season games might be tricky.

"We think about (what we'll do next in China), but we don't have a plan right now," NBA Commissioner David Stern told China Daily on Saturday. "The regular season is going to be tight, quicker. And the coaches will not let their players be quite so relaxed. For us, friendly games are better right now. The players are more relaxed, they get more time with the fans and community. And we still see good basketball games."

He's right. It's one thing to play an exhibition when you're jet-lagged and worn out from traveling, quite another to play games that count. There's also the matter of robbing a team's hometown fans - and the bars, restaurants and hotels surrounding the stadium - of a precious home game or two.

The All-Star Game is another matter entirely. The next open date is 2015. There is no stadium, no fan base, nobody on Earth who's banking on a game being played anywhere in particular on that date. Besides, why not do it soon, while there's a uniquely qualified middleman in Stephon Marbury in town?

It's not like the move would be completely unprecedented. Las Vegas isn't home to an NBA team, but it played host in 2007. That weekend is somewhat notorious - remember Adam "Pacman" Jones "making it rain" just before he was involved in a shooting outside a strip club? - but it was one of the most talked-about All-Star weekends in recent memory. Besides, the city proved in 2008 it knows how to roll out the red carpet for big sporting events.

If this year's trip is indicative, players seem to genuinely enjoy coming to Beijing. It's an interesting journey in its own right, but it's also a chance to build a presence in the ever-lucrative Chinese market - especially for All-Star caliber players.

"Many of our players have business interests here," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said last week during practice in Beijing's MasterCard Center.

Dwyane Wade, for instance, used his visit as a chance to formalize his decision to jump from Jordan shoes to Li-Ning, and signed on with a social platform called FansTang.

Everybody wins. The fans get to watch a game packed with motivated players who want to put on a show for Chinese supporters and further entrench themselves, and the league, in the market.

TV ratings would probably be down a bit in North America thanks to the necessary tape-delay, but the All-Star Game is one of the few sporting events that doesn't demand that you watch it live, because the result isn't the point. Plus, it's one of those things that's watched in large part by diehards, who are less likely to skip it either way.

The NBA wouldn't just get to build long-term goodwill in the world's largest market - it would get a chance to make the game feel like an event again.

Play the game in Cleveland, and everybody's going to remember it until sometime around lunch the next day.

Play it in Beijing, and nobody will ever forget.

Dusty Lane is a sports copy editor. Reach him at dustin.l.lane@gmail.com.