NBA eyes India as part of global drive

The NBA is forging ahead with plans for world domination, hoping that India will be the next Asian power to be seduced by hoop dreams after already captivating China.
The landmark appearance of Sim Bhullar for the Sacramento Kings last month, the first player of Indian descent to score in the NBA, gave a fresh jolt to the league's bid to win over the cricket-mad nation of 1.3 billion.
The NBA opened an office in Mumbai in 2011, part of a sophisticated international operation that has spread to all corners of the globe at a time when the league itself is becoming increasingly cosmopolitan.

"We see significant long-term opportunity," in India, said Sal LaRocca, the NBA's president of global operations.
A record 14 live NBA games are being screened in India each week this season, while more than 50 million viewers tuned in to NBA programming during the 2013-2014 season.
The NBA in April announced its first game in Africa, an August exhibition pitting a "Team Africa" consisting of first- and second-generation NBA stars from Africa against "Team World," composed of players from other regions.

In the 2015-16 season, NBA stars will also venture to Brazil, China and Mexico for exhibition or regular season play. The 2014-5 itinerary included Turkey, Germany and Britain. The prospect of an NBA game held in India is also on the league's radar.

"We're still a ways away from having a game in India, but there is a large appetite for us to play a game there," LaRocca said.
The league's basketball clinics reached more than 200,000 children in 13 countries in 2014, and the NBA now has an unprecedented number of foreign-born players (101) competing in games broadcast to almost every country on the planet.
- Players, sponsors win too -
=============================
The overseas push has been a boon to the personal brand of NBA players and to the league's corporate sponsors and partners.
In China, the league's biggest overseas market, more than a dozen players have at least one million followers on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.

The Spanish bank BBVA, the official bank of the league and the title sponsor of NBA games in Spain and Turkey, sees strong consumer interest not only at home, but in key international growth markets, like Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, where fans are embracing basketball along with football.