Basketball has truly turned into a worldwide game. Don’t believe me?
Well, the 2014 NBA draft had a third of international players go in the first round. What makes this feat even more impressive is the fact this class is considered to be the most talented one since 2003.
New commissioner Adam Silver recognizes how big his brand is worldwide, which is why he’s considering changes that would appease to his ranging audience.
“I think the biggest challenge (to growing the game internationally) is the time zone differences. I mean, for example, in China, roughly 12 hours different from the East Coast. So prime time games are on early in the morning, so you have to figure out whether we need to create new products, condensed games that are shown later, whether it becomes a business of highlights, whether it’s equivalent of tweets and other forms of social media.
“I think that’s sort of — part of the biggest challenge. I mean, ultimately, whether we should consider time-shifting some of our games. Once the audience becomes big enough, maybe it’s not so crazy to ask a team once every two months to play a Saturday morning game….
“Yes, maybe when the audience gets big enough China and you’re reaching 100 million people in China to say so maybe once in a while a team will play at 10:00 on Saturday morning.”
This type of move will take time. It sounds good on the surface, but there’s so many factors Silver must consider before making such a drastic decision.