Word: sterne
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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They are also proving that the game can play overseas. The NBA is putting the finishing touches on plans to hold several of next year's preseason games in Europe, Latin America and Asia, including China. By the end of the decade, predicts NBA commissioner David Stern, "there will be multiple NBA teams in Europe," either as regular expansion franchises or in a separate league. Developers are starting to build modern European arenas to help promote expansion of the game. Some observers have suggested staging a Ryder Cup of pro basketball, with U.S. stars battling a team of their international...
None of this comes as much of a surprise to Commissioner Stern, who has been consciously building the NBA into a global brand since before the Dream Team made its debut at the Barcelona Olympics a decade ago. "These kids have grown up watching Michael Jordan," Stern says of the NBA's new foreign stars. "Basketball is a universal language, and it's about to bloom on a global basis." Stern is counting on that, especially at a time when the NBA's popularity, at least judging by TV ratings and attendance figures, seems to have reached its peak...
...generating so much excitement. It's no secret that over the past few decades the NBA has been dominated by African Americans. Some observers argue that the addition of high-profile white and Asian stars is bringing new fans to the sport, both in the U.S. and abroad. Stern insists that "race is not a factor anymore" for those fans. But a 2001 study in the journal Economic Inquiry examined Nielsen TV ratings for local NBA broadcasts during the 1996-97 season and concluded that "all else equal, more fans tune in when there are more white players to watch...
...they keep earning those frequent-flyer miles, there's no telling how cosmopolitan the NBA will get. Some observers think as many as half the league's players could be foreign-born by the end of the decade, but Commissioner Stern calls that a stretch...
...embarrassing early exit from last year's World Basketball Championship (the winner was Yugoslavia). But he is quick to add that by that time, the league could be deriving up to half its revenue from outside the U.S. The world doesn't have to take over the NBA, Stern would like to think, for the NBA to take over the world. --With reporting by Cathy Booth Thomas/Dallas, Jackson Baker/Memphis, Sean Gregory/New York, Laura A. Locke/Sacramento, Adam Pitluk/Houston and foreign bureaus