NBA fever is sweeping the mainland (again). It’s Panda-monium! Due in large part to the potential 2011-2012 NBA lockout in the United States, many superstar basketball players are considering playing ball overseas. While stars like Kobe and Derron Williams want to play in Euro Leagues across the Atlantic, others have their eyes set across the Pacific, and are looking to play ball in China.

Over the last few weeks, these NBA stars have made the trip out to China, playing scrimmages, holding basketball camps and discussing the future of b-ball in the mainland. During their time in China, they’ve endeared themselves to the populace through fame, athletic ability, and of course, pandas. If there are two things China loves, they are Pandas and NBA superstars. Now, they’ve got both:

Lebron James:

Carmelo Anthony:

Kevin Durant (aka the Durantula):

China loves these guys (along with the pandas) and from what these superstars have been tweeting, they love China back. Bron tweeted this: “Wow what an amazing crowd in Xian!! Love the passion these people have,” after he visited youngster basketball camps. They see a population desperate for high-level of play, but with zero superstars (no more Yao). They see oceans of smiling faces, welcoming any opportunity to play in the mainland (even if it’s for less than a year). That’s dedication. That’s devotion (take note Bobcats fans).

Other NBA stars have crossed the Pacific, only to find a culture and people that love basketball, and more importantly, love them. On merch alone, these NBA stars could recoup their loses, grow their branding and expanding into a relatively untapped market (for whatever reason). With Yao’s retirement (click for past post) the NBA needs to re-energize the Chinese ballin’ community.

With each day passing, it appears that the NBA will become outsourced, likely to Europe and  China, meaning that if you want to see the best ballers in the world, it wont be on ABC/ESPN. Finally those multi-billion-dollar sports arenas (built for the Olympics) will serve some purpose. Gonna have to add CCTV to our cable package. Do you think the Big-3 (Wade, James, Bosh) will all play for the Shanghai Sharks? Ok maybe just Wade and Bron. 好球！

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