Stephon Marbury, once considered one of the top point guards to ever grace the hardwood floor, has agreed to play this season in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) for the Shanxi Zhongyu. Shanxi Zhongyu announced the news on their website today, and are hoping that Starbury will be able to to help the team improve from its 15th place position (out of 17 teams) in China’s top basketball league as well as help sell more tickets. The CBA salary cap prevents teams in the CBA from paying large amounts …

There’s been a lot of developments brewing in the city of Cleveland in the past couple of months, but things weren’t always this way for the place some call the “Forest City”. Before May 22nd 2003, when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the right to the first pick of the NBA draft, Cleveland was a small time team in a small time market most well known for being the background of Michael Jordan’s famous game winners in the Playoffs (The Shot and The Shot II). In fact, the city of Cleveland …

So I was doing my daily roundup of reading basketball news from around the world when I stumbled across this shocking PR release featured on CNN.com. The title reads:
“American Basketball Association (ABA) Joins in $200 Million Global Expansion.”

 
I must admit, I thought that the ABA had died in 1976 when it officially merged with the NBA. When I think of the ABA, I think of the blue/red/white ‘money’ ball (used today in the NBA three point contest), of Julius Erving, and of afros and tight shorts. So I had to …

The Sports Business Journal has reported that the Washington Wizards will head to China this offseason in search of sponsors, despite seemingly no direct link to the Middle Kingdom.
But even without their own personal Yao Ming to kickstart their journey to the Far East, this is a very wise business move and one that most teams will emulate in the coming years.
The financial crisis has no doubt severely affected most sports franchises, and alternate sources of income have become a major priority in the off-season.
China is the world’s largest basketball market, and still one that …

Club representatives from 18 teams and committee members of the CBA met on June 23rd to complete a 2 day board meeting discussing the future of the China Basketball Association. With losses of around 115 million RMB (17 million $) in the 2008-2009 season, stakeholders clearly had alot to talk about.

Last season, in an effort to strengthen the league and garner more attention around Asia and the rest of the world, the CBA made some major changes. Games were increased from a total of 200 to 450, the limit of …

 
When the NBA along with its partners announced the formation of the NBA China entity last year, not much was clear on the direction that this project would take.
 
Now well over a year after, the NBA’s strategy in China has taken a concrete form and its intentions are becoming clearer by the day. With the introduction of American style entertainment arenas, and American style reality shows encouraging American style cheerleading and streetball competitions – the NBA is simply copying the exact blueprint that made the league so successful on home …