How does Yaos ability to promote the NBA differ from Michael Jordans?
I don’t think anybody was more of global icon in the NBA than Michael Jordan. But Yao is different. He’s Chinese, and he is an icon for the globalization of our game. He is a symbol of this Chinese renaissance and their determination to compete on a world stage. Q: The NBA opened its first office in China in 1992 in Hong Kong. You now have two more locations, in Shanghai and Beijing. Your games are available through 14 different TV contracts in 314 million households in China. That’s pretty solid penetration at a time when U.S. companies are salivating to be part of China’s booming economy. Have you become the best friend of every blue-chip CEO in America? A: We were there before Yao, and we will be there after Yao. But the timing of his arrival in the league and what U.S. companies are looking to do in China couldn’t be better. When we decided to take the next step and play the preseason games in Shanghai and Beijing, the calls went out on a very selective basis to Reebok (RBK ), Koda
