Olympics Tennis

Thought by many to be one of the NBA’s best current players (and most definitely the top point guard), Chris Paul made a recent trip back to China, home of the 2008 olympics and Paul’s first ever Olympics gold.

There may be just a small Chinese presence in today’s NBA, but Chris Paul is forward looking and sees the potential that the world’s most populous nation offers to the NBA.

Paul had said after the Olympic games that this experience struck an emotional chord with him. It looks like he’s backing up his words, as his decision to return to China backs up his feelings.

China is probably the world’s second largest presence when it comes to basketball fans. Yao Ming’s Rockets games typically draw ratings that would shatter any records set by American standards. Paul will be making his mark in the nation by running several basketball mini-camps in Guangzhou, and will also fund the opening of a new outdoor basketball facility there.

CP3 will also be releasing a brand new Chris Paul basketball sneaker exclusively for the Chinese population. This will feature Chinese writing that commemorates both his 61 point high school game in honor of his grandfather’s murder, as well as his NBA record-breaking 106 games with a steal.

Paul is pioneering relations with the world’s fastest growing NBA market. He’s the first NBA player to ever do this on his own, excluding Yao Ming.

Since Chinese basketball figures are well on their way to surpassing those in the United States, this is a very smart move on Paul’s part. This will be both good for the league (which should attract more talent), and good for Paul (who should attract more fans).

Other player should soon follow suit and follow Paul’s lead. The size of China’s market is undeniable, and there’s never been a better time to act than now.

Tags: Olympics

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Olympics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.