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Chinese Basketball Association, innovating for the future
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 Basketball in China has grown exponentially over the past decade, from a fledgling semi-pro league to a world power in-the-making. Overseeing that change has been the Chinese Basketball Association, the premier professional basketball league in the world's most-populated country.
Since 1994, the CBA has been hard at work with innovative ideas to promote the popularity of the game and to form a financially-viable competition that also helps raise the level of the sport. For a large bulk of that time, the CBA has needed to incorporate the needs of the perennial Asian champion Chinese national basketball teams into its plans as part of the national interest of putting forth as competitive a team as possible at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing.
In the dozen years that the CBA has been in existence, it has come up with viable plans and then boldly changed them as necessary, to fit the ever-changing needs of the sport in China. That has included changing the amount of teams in the league, the scheduling system, the playoff system, incorporating foreign players and coaches and more. Throughout it all, the CBA has succeeded in building a better product, which brings more and more fans to games.
The first professional league was launched in 1995, with 12 teams in the highest division. Within five seasons, the CBA had 43 teams associated with it at different levels. One of the most important decisions in the history of the CBA came in 2004, when the league locked its participation to a 12 clubs, doing away with the previously-employed promotion and relegation system. The 12 clubs were split up into northern and southern divisions. These moves allowed the managements at the selected 12 clubs to function in a fully professional way, with a focus on building for a future and the ability to install long-term marketing plans as well. Additionally, the separation of the clubs into geographic regions was not only cost-efficient, as it saved teams money on long-distance travel, but it also helped build rivalries among the teams.
Last season the league grew to 16 teams, while the format was changed to reduce the number of games so that Team China could participate in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. Another ground-breaking move saw the league institute a "playoff draft" in which teams that made the playoffs could draft one foreign and one Chinese player from the teams that missed out. This move was intended to reduce the game time of national team players and to make the playoffs more interesting.
This coming season will again see a different scheduling format, with the CBA playing a more limited schedule to allow Team China more time to prepare the 2008 Olympics. The season will last only 30 rounds (16 teams playing home and away matches) and end in February 2008.
Over the course of time, the CBA has also seen its international exposure grow. A high-point for the CBA internationally came when Chinese center Yao Ming, who led the Shanghai Sharks to the 2002 Chinese championship, was selected No. 1 overall in the 2002 NBA draft. Furthermore, CBA games have begun being televised to Chinese population centers around the world and this past summer, the CBA sent a team to Europe for the first time to compete in the ULEB Summer League.
The first CBA - Euroleague Challenge 2007 event, a ground-breaking showcase of four games and parallel cross-cultural exchanges, sees Team China play a pair of exhibition games against European powers CSKA Moscow and Benetton Treviso. The event, which will take place in Kunshan at the modern "Kunshan New Stadium" complex, is another step that the CBA has taken raise its profile, while exposing basketball fans in China to some of the elite clubs around the world.
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Friday, September 14, 2007
Santiago Velasco, Hong Kong
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SEPTEMBER 30, 2007
CSKA Moscow vs. Sydney Kings
Team China vs. Benetton Tamoil
OCTOBER 1, 2007
Team China
vs. CSKA Moscow
Benetton Tamoil vs. Sydney Kings
OCTOBER 2, 2007
Team China vs. Sydney Kings
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79-79 Stats
Report | Quotes
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