The Washington Wizards (then Bullets) led by coach Dick Motta visited China in 1979 and played two exhibition games against the Chinese national team and the Bayi Rockets.
In January 2008 the NBA formed NBA China, a new enterprise with five partners who collectively invested $253 million: Disney/ESPN, Bank of China Group Investment, Legend Holdings, China Merchant Group, and Li Ka Shing Foundation.
An estimated 300 million people play basketball in China.
The NBA is the No 1 company in all of China in terms of social media followers, with 70 million.
"NBA" is consistently among the top 10 most searched terms on Baidu.com (China's top search engine.)
In 2013, NBA2KOnline was on pace to be the leading online sports game in China, with 8.2 million registered users.
NBA merchandise revenues in China increased by triple digits each year from 2008 to 2013.
Source: NBA China
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