NBA has room for growth in China

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The league is helping to develop the fourth cutting-edge NBA-style arena in China, in Xiamen, on the southeast coast.

Sina, the online media company, streams one live game per day and the average number of viewers during the first six weeks of the current season were 1.16 million, up 172 percent from the same period in the 2010-11 season.

"We are growing very fast internationally," said Ueberroth, noting that last week's All-Star game was televised in 215 countries in 47 different languages.

"It's a big priority in our business. It's very profitable, particularly in a place like China. We've got over 20 marketing partners there.

"The official beer of the NBA, official soft drink of the NBA and yes, even the official milk."

Ueberroth hopes to bring the NBA's blueprint for success to other countries like India, Brazil and the Philippines. Africa, she said, is fertile ground.

But the still burgeoning success of the league in China may be hard to duplicate. NBA apparel and footwear is sold in more than 2,200 Adidas stores in the country of at least 1.3 billion people.

"Our fans base there is so knowledgeable and it just impresses every person that's part of the NBA family that goes over," Ueberroth said. "It's the history of basketball in China.

"It was brought by missionaries in the late 1800s, it's been part of the fabric and played throughout China. China had a team in the 1936 Olympics.

"It has a very strong history in their culture."