Chinese New Year t-shirts for Cavaliers fans art Quicken Loans Arena (Photo : www.businesswire.com)
The Cleveland Cavaliers led the staging of a 17-day celebration of the Chinese New Year in the NBA by educating and engaging local fans with Chinese culture at Quicken Loans Arena, which was filled with Chinese rhythms and characters.
After the Cavaliers beat the Brooklyn Nets on Friday, their All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving gave a shout-out to Chinese fans while expressing his excitement for the Year of the Rooster in a postgame interview.
The Cavaliers have been one of the fan favorites of Chinese fans after LeBron James returned to their fold in 2015 and led them to an NBA championship in 2016.
Brad Sims, the Cavaliers' chief revenue officer, noted that they have hired a full-time employee from China in their initiative to develop a team whose concern is to help the Cavaliers brand grow internationally.
The said Chinese employee helps them communicate to companies in China and to the NBA league office there.
The Nets, Houston Rockets, Washington Wizards and Golden State Warriors have each hired at least one full-time employee who is originally from China to focus on business in the country.
All NBA teams will have a number of games broadcast in China on TV or streaming during the New Year, and nine teams had onsite celebrations on one of their game days.
The Rockets, Warriors and Toronto Raptors have embraced the Chinese communities in their cities while the Sacramento Kings and Wizards are also holding China theme nights.
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves have also boosted efforts to gain a piece of the Chinese market. The Timberwolves will play the Warriors in two preseason games in China before the 2017-18 season.
There were approximately 12 million people that streamed the Cavaliers and Warriors matchup two weeks ago on Tencent, the NBA's exclusive digital partner in China.
A couple of days later, the streaming numbers for the Oklahoma City Thunder versus Warriors game hit around 11 million. On top of those, the games were also broadcast on TV in China.
The NBA's streaming deal in China is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and star players can profit off branding and shoe sales.
The league's online flagship stores in China also set sales records during the 2016 Chinese New Year, exceeding the previous year's sales by 135 percent.
NBA China CEO David Shoemaker considers these Chinese New Year celebrations as a way to give back to the Chinese people, whom he considers to be the best fans in the world.
