How did basketball become the #1 sport in China?

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Do you know which is the most popular and watched sports league in China? In most countries, the answers would be related to football. The World Cup, the Champions League, the English Premier League or the Spanish La Liga. Maybe even some local championship. Whether in football or in another sport. In China, however, the American National Basketball Association (NBA) is of greatest interest. The strangest thing is that the popularity of the sport is not related to the unrealistic successes of the Chinese. In other sports, the country is far more successful. However, between 1975 and 2005, China won the Asian Men's Championship 16 times. However, only 6 Chinese have played in NBA history, while the far smaller population of Serbia has 30. The key to the equation is who one of those 6 Chinese is.

In 2002, the Houston Rockets were given the chance to pick first in the NBA draft. The Shanghai Sharks basketball player, who literally stands out with his height, is in the sights of the "rockets". According to official data, Yao Ming is 229 cm tall. For several years, Yao has proven that height is not his only good quality. The future basketball Hall of Famer makes 8 All-Star appearances. And without winning an NBA championship ring. Yao scored 9,247 points, grabbed 4,949 rebounds and made an incredible 920 blocks. Over the years, Ming has turned the NBA into a product loved by millions in China.

But the association's love affair with the world's most populous country began far earlier. In 1979, the Washington Bullets (a.k.a. now known as the Washington Wizards) became the first team to receive an invitation to visit the Asian country. The capital city hosts and meets one of the strongest Chinese teams in two friendly matches. This became a turning point, because a few months later the NBA was already televised in the country.

Back in the early 20th century, Yao Ming's early years in the United States of America raised even more interest in China. In 2004, basketball became the first professional US sport to be played in China. Two preseason games of the Houston Rockets are in front of the audience in Asia.

Over the years, the popularity of basketball and the love for the National Basketball Association in China have become greater and greater. In 2020, 625 million Chinese are defined as fans of this particular sport. Of them, 143 million are considered to be "reserved" fans, whose main love is precisely the most attractive championship in the game with the orange ball. None of these indicators would have been a fact without Yao Ming and the other key events in the development of basketball in China.

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