How Long Of A Reach?

- Matt Connolly

The NBA, while a “national association”, conducts a large part of its basketball business on international soil. The brand has grown especially popular in Asia, a region that carries the NBA’s second- and third-largest revenue markets in China and the Philippines, respectively.

And yet, despite Asia making up roughly 60 percent of the world’s population, in a class of 113 foreign players to break camp with an NBA squad this season, not one hailed from that continent (unless you count Australia).

In recent years, the league’s dedicated offices for China, India and six other Asian markets have launched initiatives, including newly opened academies, to establish the game across all levels of play.

For the NBA to reach its full potential in Asia, the region is going to need stars its fan bases can identify with. Players with full or partial Asian heritage (see Jeremy Lin) obviously help, but having a high-level player born and raised in Asia is key.

Yao Ming, an eight-time All-Star for the Houston Rockets from 2003 to 2011 and a recent Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, did wonders for the game in China. But since the 7-footer’s retirement in 2011, the country of nearly 1.4 billion has failed to produce any standouts. The Rockets’ 2016 second-round pick Zhou Qi is the country’s most promising prospect in years, but his ceiling is probably closer to that of Yi Jianlian, whose NBA career fizzled out after five seasons.

Satnam Singh is the only Indian player to come close to gracing the NBA hardwood, but the 2015 second rounder has floundered with the Dallas Mavericks’ D-League affiliate. The Philippines, where basketball borders on religion, has yet to produce any NBA-calibre talent.