The NBA has played many preseason games in China over the years, including this season with the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Clippers playing two games in Beijing and Shanghai.
Playing exhibition games has been a good way to grow the game and the performance of the U.S. men's basketball team at the 2008 Olympics only added to the game's worldwide popularity in China.
"You only have these type of opportunities so often," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said to ESPN.com. "You want to take advantage of it. This is the preseason. We understand the big picture. It's a great program that the NBA runs when you have an opportunity to play overseas. Our last trip was tremendous when we went to Europe. Great team-building, and you get to see another part of the world and do it together."
Basketball has always been a global game and with Yao Ming having debuted in 2002 and playing many years for the Houston Rockets, the NBA has become very popular with Chinese basketball fans. The league is doubling down on that concept, planning a new basketball center with a Chinese partner that will be based near Beijing.
From the Associated Press, the NBA and its Chinese partner will build a basketball center in Tianjin, a port city east of Beijing, that will include "NBA-style basketball courts, a fitness center, a restaurant and other features, according to NBA China and the Yatai Lanhai Investment Group."
The center will be 120,000 square feet and will also have housing for 150,000.
According to the NY Times, "The N.B.A. Center - a basketball extravaganza that will include a gym and an N.B.A.-themed cafe, a restaurant and a store as well as an interactive gaming area and a children's zone - will be placed at the center of a $1.5 billion, 800-hectare, or 2,000-acre, property development being built by a Chinese company."
China has created a range of opportunities over the years for NBA players and the league, including in shoe sales, jersey sales, international leagues as well as television broadcast rights for games.
Even the show industry has gotten in on the action. Miami Heat superstar Dwayne Wade, who is playing exhibition games in China for the preseason, recently signed with a Chinese shoe company after his contract with Nike expired.
This is a great opportunity for me," Wade said to Darren Rovell on ESPN.com. "I can either choose to stick to the status quo or be a trailblazer."
According to Rovell, Wade was with Converse before the company was bought by Nike and moved to the Jordan shoe brand for a few years before making a new choice.
"In the end, the pros outweighed the cons," Wade said. "Jordan might have that cool factor, but I'm at a different point in my career. I want to be involved in building something."
Wade signed with the brand Li-Ning, who has previously signed Shaquille O'Neal, Baron Davis and Evan Turner to contracts. According to the article, the company "did $1.4 billion of total business in 2011."
Players have also seen China as a destination for playing professionally after their NBA careers are over. Stephon Marbury has played in China with great success and a number of players, including J.R Smith, Wilson Chandler and Kenyon Martin, played in China during the NBA lockout.
The latest player to make the move is former All-Star Tracy McGrady, who has signed with the Qingdao DoubleStar Eagles in the Chinese Basketball Association.
According to the Associated Press: "There are times in life that a new road presents itself and it appears this time has come for me now," McGrady wrote on his Website.
The former superstar most recently played with the Atlanta Hawks in 2011.
The move by McGrady and Wade just show the effect that the Chinese market has on the NBA. Last season there was a spike in Asian interest after the overnight success of Jeremy Lin, and the help of Yao Ming has only helped grow the game in China.
With the construction of the new NBA center near Beijing, the league will have a beacon based in one of the biggest sports markets in the world.
