Duke to dunk in Shanghai
Yao Ming might be the best-known Chinese basketball player, but the Duke University men's basketball team is banking that the Chinese love of basketball doesn’t stop there.
One of the most succesful college basketball teams in the United States, the Duke University Blue Devils will be making a world tour this summer, with stops in Shanghai at the Mercedes-Benz Arena (August 19), Beijing (August 22) and Kunshan (August 17).
The popularity of the professional National Basketball Association is at an all-time high, according to Tim Chen, chief executive of NBA China.
The "Dukies," as they are sometimes called in the U.S., represent the pinnacle of the amateur collegiate game in the states.
The Blue Devils are currently the defending collegiate men's national champions.
According to a piece in The Duke Chronicle, Duke vice president and director of athletics Kevin White announced that the Blue Devils will play games in China and Dubai in August 2011.
He didn't say which local teams the Blue Devils would go up against.
“I think most [people] would like to see Duke play the Chinese national team,” says Andy Moore, a Duke student and sports editor for "The Chronicle" campus newspaper. “American basketball fans do not really recognize many, if any, China-based teams other than the national team. Playing them would also bring huge TV ratings in the United States.”
We're keeping our fingers crossed that the Shanghai Sharks get on Duke's schedule, as well.
“The global tour presents Duke University with an extraordinary opportunity to expand our brand across the world, using one of its primary assets -- Duke basketball -- as the catalyst,” White added in his press statement.
The 200-acre, Duke-affiliated Kunshan campus is scheduled to open in 2012 at an estimated cost of US$7-10 million to the university.
“The basketball team and 'Coach K' (Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski) are really the most public representatives the university has,” says Moore of the team's role of school ambassadors.
“Their rise in the 1980s roughly coincided with Duke's rise as a nationally renowned school, and it only makes sense that the academic side of the school would want the basketball team to again be its public face, as Duke tries to brand itself as a worldwide institution," says Moore. "What better way to publicize the campus in Kunshan than a game played there by arguably the country's most prominent (college) basketball team?”
The legendary “Coach K” is well known in China for leading the Team USA Olympic basketball squad to the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Even if the Blue Devils have yet to make the radar of Chinese fans, who mainly focus on the NBA, Coach K might help them make the jump to college ball.
The 2011 series of games is just part of Duke’s push to introduce college basketball to China. The school also sponsored a Chinese-language TV broadcast and online streaming of a recent Duke home game.
Basketball has taken off in China in the past few years as U.S. players have begun seeing the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), established in 1995, as a legitimate opportunity.
- More on CNNGo: Shanghai Sharks' Garret Siler on his move to China
A number of NBA free agents have come to China, including NBA all-star Stephon Marbury, as well as Steve Francis, Fred Jones and Josh Boone.
The CBA has increasingly found a receptive audience, counting 436 million viewers in China in 2010. As viewership rises, so will advertisers and team budgets -- increasing the overall level of play.
