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...NBA Commissioner David Stern has already executed a beautiful pivot move into China, where, thanks in part to Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, hoops is hotter than Sichuan cooking. There's still work to be done in Europe, even though it is now a source of many NBA players, including seven Frenchmen and six Slovenes. Before the season, the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns played exhibition games in Germany, a challenging NBA country, as part of a four-team, five-country full-court press of Europe--Italy, Spain, France and Russia were also hosts of training camps and games...
Expanding to the world's second most populous market hardly seems loony. After all, no American sports league has exported its brand better than the NBA, which sells more than $750 million in merchandise overseas annually. Its games are broadcast in 215 countries. And India offers a growing, tech-savvy economy with a billion potential consumers--60% of whom are below age 30--who could sop up NBA merchandise and follow their favorite players on NBA.com...
...Knowing that India is an NBA priority, Adidas, which signed an 11-year apparel deal with the league in April, this summer sent Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett on a whirlwind, three-day tour, the first official trip by an NBA player to India. He gave a clinic in Bangalore, cut the ribbon at Adidas stores in New Delhi and Bangalore, and attracted throngs of fans. Adidas released nearly 900 pairs of a $189 limited edition, India-only Garnett basketball shoe, stitched with the country's orange, white and green colors and its iconic symbol, a tiger. Betting in part...
...give him Jordanesque abilities. Once aliens like your sport, you have arrived. Indian cell-phone carriers have featured kids shooting hoops in recent TV spots. "As a business opportunity, the potential is huge," says Anil Kumar, president of SportzIndia Management, a marketing and consulting firm. The key for the NBA, Kumar insists, is TV saturation. "Cricket on the small screen? It's impossible to see the ball. You have to do replays every time. Basketball is a sport made...
...about his Indian experiment. "With [India's] middle class and some focus on the world's games, basketball is starting to get a little interest and a little traction," he insists. "So we have to be respectful and realize it's going to be small steps up." Given the NBA's global track record, its Indian steps could end up looking like Garnett. Bigger, and quicker, than you think...