1985, the popularity of basketball in China was similar to what it is India today. Recognizing that China had the world’s largest potential fan base, many grass roots efforts were made by the Chinese government, local organizations, and the NBA, to promote the game of basketball.

Today, largely accelerated by the international pop star success of Yao Ming,
- NBA China is a 2 Billion-dollar organization, according to Goldman Sachs.
- Basketball is currently shown on 51 television networks in China.
- More than 30% of the hits to the NBA website are from China.
- Chinese organizations, government entities and professional leagues are planning projects to build over 800,000 courts in villages across China.
- NBA Merchandise is sold in over 50,000 outlets across the nation
- More than 400 million USD worth of NBA merchandise was sold in China, despite a notoriously large black market for copyrighted goods
- China is the second largest market for the NBA - as more than 350 million Chinese play basketball