Abstract
Baseball was invented by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, in 1891.The sports popularity grew with the first professional competition in 1896 at a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) event in Trenton, New Jersey. A number of leagues were formed in the late part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century operating with varying degrees of success. The NBA was formed as the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1946. It emerged as the strongest league in 1949 with 17 teams, following its merger with the National Basketball League (NBL). Since then it has consolidated its position in North America. Currently the league has 30 teams; 29 in the USA and one in Canada; they play at least 82 games a season (the regular season). This usually runs from late October until April. However, a dispute between players and management meant the 2011/12 season start was delayed until December. The eight best performing teams then proceed to the play offs which run until the Final in mid June.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
For a brief history of the three leagues see www.nba.com/careers/prolevel_leagues.html.
- 2.
For a detailed history of franchising in North American sport see Frank Jozsa Big sports, big business. Prager: USA, 2006.
References
ESPN (2011). NBA cancels first 2 weeks of season. http://espn.go.com/nba
Drummond, E. (2009). Entrepreneurship a good play for NBA in China, Institute for International Business—Global Forum Report, Winter, 4–15. Drummond was at the time of publication Head of International Human Resources for the NBA.
Bou, F., Chen, D., Guo, S., Han, F. & Liao, M. (2011). Beyond Yao: The future of Chinese basketball, Knowledge@Wharton.
Drummond, E. (2009). Entrepreneurship a good play for NBA in China. Report: Institute for International Business—Global Forum. p.14.
NBA (2008). NBA announces formation of NBA China http://www.nba.com/news/nba_china_080114.html
Lombardo, J. (2010). After two years, NBA China on steady course, Sports Business Daily.com.
Smith, D. (2012). Toronto raptors guard DeMar DeRozan takes NBA message to China. The Star.
Martin, B. (2012). Big things are happening in China. www.nba.com/global/news
Chine Daily (2012). NBA China program draws 96Â m viewers. www.chinadaily.com
Bou, F., Chen, D., Guo, S., Han, F. & Liao, M. (2011). Beyond Yao: The future of Chinese basketball, Knowledge@Wharton.
Yardley, J. (2012). The New York Times: The NBA is missing its shots in China. 1 Feb.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pritchard, A. (2014). Case Study 9: The National Basketball Association (NBA) in China. In: Mutum, D., Roy, S., Kipnis, E. (eds) Marketing Cases from Emerging Markets. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36861-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36861-5_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36860-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36861-5
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)