Sports Globalization: NBA Goes Emerging Markets!

Last January, the widely followed US National Basketball Association (NBA) formed its overseas arm, NBA China, to expand its basketball league to cover at China.

This from NBA, ``Five strategic partners will invest $253 million to acquire 11% of the company in preferred equity. The strategic partners are an elite group of exceptionally prominent and successful entities: ESPN, a division of The Walt Disney Company, Bank of China Group Investment, Legend Holdings Limited, Li Ka Shing Foundation and China Merchants Investments.”

We further read that the NBA plans to develop teams of professional players from about 10 cities in the coming years and help install more than 800,000 basketball goals throughout China, making the popular game even more accessible!

It doesn’t end here. NBA now plans to stretch its exposure to India!

From Steve Kyler of hoopsworld.com (highlight mine), ``[NBA Commissioner] David Stern also dropped hints that China may be the first stop of the NBA in Asia, but said he and his staff did meet with officials from India, where the NBA recently held a Basketball Without Borders stop. Stern pointed to India as an area where the NBA sees tremendous interest in basketball, and is open to exploring opportunities for the NBA to help develop the game in India. Europe may be stealing a few middle tier NBA players, but it seems the NBA is more focused on exploiting the billion fan markets of Asia.”

The Moral of NBA’s actions: FOLLOW the MONEY!