The state of NBA China was examined by Henry Abbott of ESPN.com, who wrote under the header, “The NBA’s China Evolution.” The NBA “says that despite Yao Ming's retirement and recent reports of blown opportunities, the league is doing very well in China” even though there has been no development of a league in the country. While a recent N.Y. Times Magazine story hinted that the NBA's talk of “a league in China helped to doom a league in China,” others involved in the development said that is not the case. Raine Group Founder & Partner Joseph Ravitch, while working for Goldman Sachs, "advised the NBA on setting up its China business." He has been "watching closely ever since and says the NBA executives 'haven't failed at all.'" Ravitch: "They've done exactly what they said they were going to do. ... The key to that deal is that NBA China owns all of the rights, past, present and future, to all NBA trademarks, all NBA content, all the video past, present and future, for greater China. ... What people bought when they invested in it was effectively the intellectual property around the NBA past, present and future. Which is, one can argue, incalculable in value." To anyone who "doubts the NBA's popularity in China, Ravitch suggests attending" a game. Abbott noted there seems to be "little argument that the NBA runs a strong business in China," but a local NBA league in the country "has not gotten anywhere, with estimates it is a decade or two away at best." Ravitch said a league was a "bonus," but it "was never in the plan." NBA China CEO David Shoemaker: "I don't think there's ever really been a change in the plan. Everyone has understood that the most important thing to do is to collaborate in growing the game of basketball. ... Could there come a day where we collaborate with the Chinese Basketball Association on a league here in China? Surely yes. But that's not our focus. And it'll take a long time to get to that point."
VICTIM OF POLITICS? Abbott suggested a possible theory is the NBA's "desire for a Chinese league was very real -- and was thwarted by the machinations of Chinese politics." The "calculus seems to be that even admitting NBA China still really wants a league would be an error of rhetoric that could make political problems." So those at the NBA and NBA China "speak in 'maybe one day' terms and wait for political stars to align." In the "long term, perhaps the NBA will find a way to present live, in-the-flesh basketball to a massive, basketball-loving, brand-conscious and increasingly wealthy domestic Chinese market." Until then, the other parts of the business "are doing well enough to declare victory" (ESPN.com, 2/13).
