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NBA in talks with China to establish league
2007-10-17
NBA commissioner David Stern said Wednesday he is in talks with sporting authorities in China to establish a world-class basketball league. Stern said a key goal of his visit to China this week was to increase cooperation with China's basketball league, the CBA, "to really form the second NBA, the NBA of China." Last month, the NBA announced the establishment of NBA China to be headed by the outgoing boss of Microsoft's China operations, Tim Chen, in what was seen as the first step toward an eventual NBA-managed Chinese domestic league. Speaking at a press conference Wednesday in the nation's financial hub of Shanghai ahead of a pre-season match between the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Stern stressed that the proposal for a league was still in its infancy. "This is a long-term project where the discussions have just begun and would of course involve the securing of significant financing from capital sources to finance substantial arena development throughout China," he said. He added that the NBA and China Sports Ministry were discussing how to build more courts in the world's most populous nation to boost the appeal of the sport, which in China is second only to football in popularity. Increasing cooperation with the national team was also being discussed, he said. The NBA sees China as a potential gold mine, with an estimated 300 million playing the sport and Chinese stars such as the Houston Rockets' Yao Ming and Milwaukee Bucks' Yi Jianlian fuelling interest. The NBA, which boasts lucrative advertising partnerships in China with 20 major global brands, also brings the sport to aspiring young athletes by holding regular basketball training camps throughout the country. This year's three pre-season fixtures in China, two of them in the gambling mecca of Macau later this week, makes it the third time that the NBA has played games in China. The first were three years ago when Yao's Rockets met the Sacramento Kings in Shanghai and Beijing.
Yao outscores Yi to power Rockets past Bucks (2007-11-10)Big debut for Big Three; James has 45 (2007-11-03)NBA in talks with China to establish league (2007-10-17)Cavaliers, Magic lead NBA drive into China (2007-10-16)Yi debuts, Noah looks better (2007-10-10)
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