Derek Chang is the most important person in the NBA you've never heard of
Share to twitterNANSHA, CHINA - NOVEMBER 28: Derek Chang, Chief Executive Officer of NBA China, speaks during Panel Discussion on Day 2 of CNBC East Tech West at LN Garden Hotel Nansha Guangzhou on November 28, 2018 in Nansha, Guangzhou, China.
Among the nearly 1.4 billion people who call China home, 640 million of them watched some kind of NBA programming over the course of the 2017-2018 season, per league figures. That's nearly twice the population of the entire United States. The scope and scale of the NBA's shoulder content in China is also huge. The league estimates that it has 180 million social media followers in China, and its flagship weekly show NBA Primetime has averaged 28 million viewers per episode over the last three years.
Tencent has made a huge push into NBA content over the last few years. Chang boasted that Tencent employs as many people devoted to the NBA in China as the league itself. Tencent opened ain Beijing a couple of years ago that combines traditional game broadcasts with some of its own groundbreaking virtual and augmented reality technology it uses for its video gaming and ESports productions.
“This is all basketball and the resonance of the sport in China," Chang said."You walk down the street and you see people wear NBA gear all over the place.” “One of the things we really want to do is help support his efforts to continue the development of league basketball in China," Chang said,"with the overall goal of growing the sport throughout the country but then at the top levels, hoping to really get them in a different league than they are today.”
Another signature event for NBA China is the initiative at NBA games centered around the Lunar New Year, the campaign’s 8th season. You could hardly avoid seeing the plush pink dolls being tossed into stands at arenas across the league celebrating the year of the pig in addition to special Chinese-themed City Edition jerseys worn this season by the Warriors and Rockets.
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