Chinese dynasty
Credit for becoming a popular team and sport in China rests with Yao Ming.
SHANGHAI — David Stern, then the NBA commissioner in search of new worlds to conquer, saw the potential. Leslie Alexander, the Rockets owner who on the day after the 2002 NBA Draft said Yao Ming would be the world’s most popular athlete and the Rockets would become China’s favorite team, predicted it.
Then Yao and the Rockets would lead the NBA’s incursion into Chinese sports culture and even the most ambitious of forecasts seem to have fallen short.
The Rockets’ return this week for the 10th NBA Global Games in China has offered a glimpse of how remarkable the takeover has been.
“Based on all of our research, the NBA is clearly the most popular sports league in China,” NBA China CEO David Shoemaker said. “There’s no other one that’s close.
“It is not a novelty anymore. The NBA is an institution and that separates us from other leagues and other sports.”
The scenes are not quite like the shrieking madness of the first China Games in 2004, but novelty could not last. The NBA wanted something more meaningful and lasting.
That first trip was all about Yao, a celebration of his place in the NBA and the still new relative opening of China to the global community.
The ensuing events, including this week’s trip by the Rockets and New Orleans Pelicans for a pair of preseason games, are about all he made possible.
“The NBA is completely dug in and embraced in China,” Shoemaker said. “Last year, over 660 million unique people watched at least one NBA game. We have well over 100 million followers of social media in China. The game has never been more popular, and a lot of it is attributable to Yao Ming.”
Yao will forever be the favorite son and legend. But the uniforms in the stands are of all sorts of players. There were especially raucous cheers at Friday’s fan event when the Pelicans’ young star Anthony Davis was introduced, roars when James Harden took the floor, introduced last as if he were still in Houston.
“I’ve caught myself saying, ‘You should see it when Yao Ming is here or Kobe Bryant is here; they’re like rock stars,’ ” Shoemaker said. “That’s understating it. They are more than rock stars in China. It is an unbelievable following, a craziness and a euphoria for Chinese people when they get a glimpse of these icons that they’ve idolized.”
‘Debt of gratitude’
Players routinely make promotional trips to China in the offseason, celebrated with the sort of madness Yao inspired with his return home more than a decade earlier.
“Every player in the NBA owes a debt of gratitude to Yao Ming,” Rockets CEO Tad Brown said. “He’s opened up incredible doors on the marketing front. He’s opened up incredible opportunities for the league to continue to expand and grow.
“The way the game has exploded in China is a direct relation to Yao Ming’s skills and Yao Ming’s ability to handle all the pressures when he first came into the league and throughout his career.”
Yao typically refuses to look at his influence quite that way. To consider that part of his legacy, even a triumph, would require looking back. Yet, he need only to see the popularity of his team in his hometown to see the power of his influence.
“I believe the Rockets are still China’s favorite team,” Shoemaker said. “There are other teams that live on in fans’ hearts. But the Rockets still have that very special place and probably will forever among Chinese fans.”
With that in mind, the Rockets continue to make considerable efforts to grow their relationship — and the NBA’s — with China. They typically have five or six major partnerships with companies based in China and several more multinational companies seeking to expand their brand in China. Several other companies, including Peak and ZTE, became Rockets sponsors and moved on to be major NBA sponsors.
“It’s a significant component of our marketing mix, and it’s an opportunity we’ve been able to develop over the years with a real strategic focus on building that end of our business,” Brown said.
That is only possible because of the Rockets’ enduring popularity throughout China.
“It’s been a natural integration between fan bases, between Houston and Shanghai, the Rockets and the Chinese people,” Brown said. “It’s a very natural, symbiotic type of relationship that’s grown organically over the last 15 years.”
The Rockets’ trips to China are a part of playing for the team or working for the organization. The Rockets don’t go to Europe or South America. This season’s trip to Shanghai and Beijing is their fourth to greater China.
Staffers work on nothing else for months to prepare. The Rockets recently added a Director of Strategic Development/China, Sunshine Rogers, to concentrate entirely on marketing and business relationship in China, the only such position in the NBA.
“It is hard on the organization, but we also understand it’s part of our responsibility to what Mr. Alexander set as a goal of ours, to be the most popular team in the world, especially when we’ve had this relationship with China for so long,” Brown said. “It’s also our responsibility to be a good partner in the NBA to grow the game and not only the Rockets’ brand but the NBA brand in the world’s largest market. We always have a terrific experience here, but yeah, it can be hard.”
‘A great experience
Players, however, consider it rewarding and fans’ enthusiasm contagious. If the excitement is no longer new, it never gets old.
“It’s very special,” Harden said. “It’s an opportunity for us … to give these fans the game of basketball, the NBA, here. It’s a great experience.
“The Rockets are an extremely popular team here in China. Credit to Yao Ming for that, opening the door for us. The culture and the love of basketball here is second to none. They love it. They embrace basketball.”
Long after those initial efforts to tap that potential and grand predictions, the Rockets and the NBA are back, happy to embrace them back.