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 …

As promised, below are a couple of videos that you can watch from the NBA reality show in China called “Mengniu Basketball Disciple”.
While the level of play is quite low (around US Varsity level), the show is well edited/produced and they manage to fit in quite abit into the 45 minute time allocated per show. Some background is given on the players, they talk about their favorite NBA players, they do drills, get evaluated by the American coaches, participate in contests and games, and in the end players are voted …

Last night, along with millions of other Chinese NBA fans, I stayed up to watch Game 7 of the 2009 NBA Playoffs between the LA Lakers and Houston Rockets. The match tipped off at 3:30AM local time – so not exactly prime time for the world’s largest basketball market. Many years ago Chinese fans’ best hopes of following the game would have been hitting the refresh button on the NBA.com live box score every minute or so, but things have change in the 21st century.
Despite having to get up for …

Inside Look at the NBA China store.