THE STERN DOCTRINE LEADS NBA'S FOREIGN POLICY

     This week's BUSINESS WEEK looks at the NBA's "fast break
overseas."  With revenues over $1B and U.S. arenas filled to 92%
of capacity, Commissioner David Stern is now looking to Europe,
Latin America and, "especially to Asia," to expand the hot
product.  Stern hopes to "have all the NBA's business
opportunities -- in TV, merchandise, and events -- staffed and
running at full speed on six continents" in the next two years.
The NBA is especially strong in Australia, Israel, and Japan --
with Germany and Britain "surging dramatically."  Allen Furst, of
D&F Group Ltd., a event sponsorship agency in Washington, DC: "Of
U.S. pro sports, the NBA is No. 1 in international expansion and
awareness."  Stern's global plan is for TV to bring basketball
into 140 countries, making the NBA Game of the Week into a
worldwide "staple", while "holding in reserve commercial time on
each overseas channel that it can sell" to marketers such as
Coca-Cola, IBM, McDonald's, and Nike (Desens & O'Reilly, BUSINESS
WEEK, 12/5 issue).