NBA aiming to dunk soccer's global status

Deputy commissioner puts priority on extending league's growth in China

NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum has been racking up air miles since taking the league's No 2 post in February as he bids to have basketball, which is currently enjoying an all-time high in China, replace soccer as the world's favorite sport.

"Our goal is to become the No 1 sport globally," Tatum told China Daily in Shanghai last week, having wrapped up another business trip to South Africa in August.

He was in town to watch a Shanghai Sharks game with franchise owner Yao Ming and to discuss the NBA Yao School, a project jointly owned and operated by the league and the retired NBA All-Star.

"We're going to work every day as hard as we can until we get there," said Tatum, who is ethnically part Chinese, adding "it will take as long as it takes."

His multicultural upbringing - his father grew up in Jamaica - has given the gregarious new cheerleader for the sport a truly global perspective. But Tatum knows only too well he needs China on board to catapult the sport to the top of the global standings.

Under the leadership of commissioner Adam Silver, NBA China CEO David Shoemaker and Tatum, NBA China has made huge strides in the past six months in terms of expanding the league's presence here.

During the NBA Global Games in October, it forged a multiyear partnership with China's Ministry of Education to incorporate a fitness and basketball development curriculum in elementary, middle and high schools around the country.

This marked the ministry's first such deal with an American professional sports league, and the signing ceremony in Beijing was attended by China's Vice-Premier Liu Yandong.

"The sport has such great benefits ... it teaches great values such as leadership, teamwork, how to be active, how to be healthy and how to be fit," said Tatum, who was making his second trip to China within a month.

In February, NBA China and Yao launched China's first after-school program offering NBA-standard basketball coaching to young children. Based in two locations in Beijing, one being the former Beijing Olympic basketball stadium, it now instructs more than 1,000 students aged 6-16.

"Our focus is really to grow the game of basketball and our working with Yao Ming and the Ministry of Education is a good example of that," said Tatum. "Our goal is to reach 3 million kids by 2017."

He said plans are afoot to open a second branch of the NBA Yao School in Shanghai early next year, although a location has yet to be chosen.

"Basketball obviously had a big influence on my personal development. I hope that kind of development can be available for the next generation," said Yao.

"This isn't just about training for basketball; it's about training for life. It can help making decisions, in facing difficulties, at school and we want the kids to have a chance to try these things out."

The NBA has also taken pains to reach out to increasingly sophisticated local fans, even launching a new Chinese-language NBA stats site.

According to a recent survey by China's General Administration of Sports, basketball is the most watched sport in China, and significantly more popular than soccer, table tennis, badminton and gymnastics.

It ranks as the most popular international sports league in the country and has more than 80 million followers on local social media platforms.

China is especially close to Tatum's heart as his maternal grandmother hails from Shantou, Guangdong province. His mother was born in China but later moved to Vietnam.

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he said he is proud of his Chinese heritage and is fully aware of the benefits of his multicultural upbringing.

"It means a tremendous amount," he said. "The values which I grew up under were very Chinese, from my mother's side. Respect, hard work, being humble. I think those are the characteristics that my mom really instilled in me."

However, pleasing 300 million fairly knowledgeable Chinese fans is no easy job and the NBA is ambitiously exploring all channels to connect more closely with them.

The NBA broadcasts and live streams its games through a list of media partners here including CCTV-5, BesTV, Guangdong TV, Sina, Tencent and LeTV. The opening week saw 17 games screened live over six days.

More than 170 former and current NBA players are interacting with Chinese fans on their own Sina Weibo accounts on a regular basis. For the first time this year, the NBA sold tickets for the Global Games in Beijing and Shanghai via WeChat, marking a first for a sports league from anywhere in the world.

"We continue to figure out what content and what things are important to that audience," said Tatum. "We will continue to innovate and find new ways to connect."

Tatum also said the NBA is considering rescheduling games so Chinese and other fans can enjoy watching them after work - but that won't happen if it compromises the quality of the games.

"One of our biggest challenges in terms of globalizing the game is the time difference," Tatum said. "But we're not going to do anything that would dilute the brand."