INTRODUCING THE DREAM TEAM
Stern encouraged NBA stars, such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to play on what would be called “The Dream Team” during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. It was USA Basketball’s first team made up of professional players.
“The Dream Team ignited interest in basketball around the world,” Stern said in August. “I would say that prior to the ’92 Barcelona Olympics we had about 80 countries that were showing NBA basketball. Today, there are 215 countries showing NBA basketball. And you can see the chart and the graph that follows the Dream Team. You could say you saw Charles Barkley elbow the Angolan player, and then you can watch Charles play for Phoenix, or Houston, or wherever he was playing.
“And we began marketing the NBA to countries that were getting it from the Olympics. And actually, China had the Olympics in 2008, and when Yao Ming led the Chinese team against the US, I think it still is the most watched basketball game in the history of the world.”
The Dream Team made the world fall in love with the game. Several former international NBA stars, including Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki, France’s Tony Parker and Argentina’s Manu Ginobili were influenced by watching The Dream Team on television as children.
Entering this season, the NBA featured 108 international players.
GROWING THE GAME GLOBALLY
In 1989, Stern stood outside the Chinese Central Television offices in Beijing for four hours until he got a meeting. He next convinced CCTV to air NBA games initially for free. Today, 18 million fans are watching NBA games in China. Last July, Tencent and the NBA announced a five-year extension through the 2024-25 season paying $1.5 billion.
The rest of the world eventually followed China on NBA viewership, as the 2019 NBA Finals were shown live in 215 countries in 50 languages. The NBA also now has offices internationally in Hong Kong, Manila, Toronto, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, London, Madrid, Mumbai, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg thanks to Stern’s influence.
“We’ve worked with cities to help them understand what they needed in buildings,” Stern said. “We’ve opened up academies there, and under Commissioner Silver there are four or five academies all over the world. In India, in China, Latin America, etc. And it’s very exciting. And now they’re about to open a league in Africa, the Basketball Africa League, which I think is a terrific opportunity.”
The NBA will debut its Basketball Africa League in March.