NBA China
SLAM teams up with the Wall Street Journal. Kind of…
By Alan Paul
The NBA is up to some really interesting stuff in China, now launching a separate entity called NBA China.
I co-wrote a story about it in the Wall Street Journal, which ran last week. You can find it here:
After the story came out, the NBA released some more information, including the following, which is right from their press release:
Five strategic partners will invest $253 million to acquire 11% of the company in preferred equity. The strategic partners are an elite group of exceptionally prominent and successful entities: ESPN, a division of The Walt Disney Company, Bank of China Group Investment, Legend Holdings Limited, Li Ka Shing Foundation and China Merchants Investments.
ESPN is going to own 5 percent of the league with the Chinese companies all divvying up the other six percent. There are a couple of really interesting nuggets here. One is that ESPN is going to be a partner in the League. That in itself could have all sorts of implications down the road. And two is that, despite not releasing a lot of details about how the League will actually function, they are valuing it at well over $2.5 billion. Wow.
Lastly, it is going to be really interesting to see what NBA China, or the NBA, does with this little pot of cash.
14 Responses to “NBA China”
Jan.17 at 11:44 am
TADOne says:
Cha-Ching!
Jan.17 at 12:48 pm
BETCATS says:
when will we see the return of Ping Ping?
Jan.17 at 1:06 pm
Lang Whitaker says:
Mr. Ping Ping will be the commissioner.
Jan.17 at 1:55 pm
FLUD says:
Yao-ch!!…that’s crazy money. They should buy the Knicks off Dolan with that cash.
Jan.17 at 2:01 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Are they going to demand Yao Ming back?
Jan.17 at 4:01 pm
Cub Buenning says:
Or at least Menkge Bateer….
Jan.17 at 6:48 pm
apaul says:
bateer is here! He played for xinjiang this year and had great year..then they got banned from the playoffs for using a foreigner disguised as a local…he is chinese american or something. i need to get the details an make a post.
Jan.17 at 7:23 pm
Cub Buenning says:
That team from Xinjiang has always been loose with the rules….I figured he was back in the CBA. I loved that guy. Him and Priest Lauderdale.
Jan.17 at 11:27 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Where’s Wang Zhi Zhi these days? I actually saw him play in the ‘96 Hoop Summit–where he got his sh*t repeatedly swatted by Jermaine O’Neal.
Jan.18 at 3:32 am
hursty says:
xinjiang player was with an illegal passport and ‘he was only being paid 1500′ i dont know what the currency was or how correct it is alan but the story was on yahoo a couple of days ago.
Jan.18 at 3:44 am
hursty says:
btw, you cant post on that other NBA china thing.
Jan.18 at 6:48 am
apaul says:
hursty, you mean the link doesn’t work? that’s unfortunate. i will try to rectify. Wang is back in china and dominating the cba.. they won the title last year, during which he schooled yi and he just won mvp of the cba all star game — which is played after the season but before the playoffs go figure. they are already done with regular season because they shortened it so they can start training for olympics — six months early, with out yao or yi. it’s obviously unlikely, but if rockets or bucks went on a deep playoff run, they would be freaking out.
Jan.18 at 12:12 pm
Cub Buenning says:
Alan, does that 7′2″ freshmen kid at CAL play for the juniors? Assuming that if he is not getting any run up in Berkeley, he probably isn’t on the sr. nat’l team.
Any word on young Chineese studs signing with Memphis, yet?
Jan.31 at 11:45 am
Sean says:
Alan, how can I get a hold of you. I’m trying to get more information on basketball in China. Can I get your e-mail address? Mine is sean_cl_123@hotmail.com. Thanks.