Article from xinhuanet.com NBA looks to play regular season matches in China BEIJING, Sept. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- With pre-season games set to debut in China next year, the National Basketball Association (NBA) would also consider to move regular season matches here as they continue to explore the Chinese market. Mark Fischer, managing director of NBA Asia in China, told Xinhua on Thursday that they are also likely to move some regular season matches to China if "everything goes well". Fischer, who is in Beijing for the Sept. 19-Oct. 5 Coca-Cola NBA Jam Session debuts in China, believed it was going to happen very soon. "A couple of years later, probably after two or three years at the pre-season (level)...," he said. He also said it would partly depend on gyms in China since the regular season matches demand high-quality courts and facilities. NBA Commissioner David Stern announced on June 2 that the China NBA Games 2004 would see two pre-season matches between Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings take place in Beijing and Shanghai in October next year. Before the regular season matches coming into China, NBA wants to make the NBA China Games an annual global festa. "If it's successful in 2004, if we sell out the tickets, the sponsors are happy, local partners, the Beijing and Shanghai Sports Bureau, the teams and everybody is happy, then we do it again in 2005," said Fischer. "We hope it could be every year, but we have to do first is to ensure everything goes well. "As long as everything works great, we are going to keep doing it and it'll come as a very exciting annual event that not only everybody in China but also the whole world would get excited about NBA China Games." A recent NBA survey showed that 75 percent of the male Chinese aged 15 to 24 were NBA fans. Since NBA programming first appeared on Chinese Central Television (CCTV) in 1987, it has now reached 314 million television households in the country.
I am completely and totally against any regular season games anywhere except in a NBA city. If the NBA wants to have a few pre-season games to promote the sport than fan but leave the real games to the fans and cities that support those teams. If the city does not have a NBA franchise then no regular season games. Period. BTW, wasn't it the Rockets and the Sonics that opened the regular season over seas several years back?
Yup. Two games in Tokyo to start the 92-93 season. The plane ride there was infamous, in that it was where Hakeem and Charlie Thomas ironed out their differences.
I remember that game. I remember Charles Barkley throwing his shoes into the crowd after the game was over.
I say not untill we win back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back championships. It's time for Ming to make a name for himself here in the states. But, if it's only preseason.
it really boils down to one word - MONEY. the nba commisioner doesn't care anything else but money. fans opinion is irrelevent here.
