NBA China CEO hire to appease China and get back on TV

By ALAN WALLS

Welcome to the seventh edition of The International Basketball Opinion, the world’s newest and only blog specifically dedicated to international basketball news, business and current events.

Note: I have a good perspective of basketball in China having lived and worked there in 2012-13 helping grow a basketball academy as the head coach and director of curriculum.

A month ago, it was announced that NBA China CEO Derek Chang would be stepping down from his post today, May 15, and return to his family in London. He took over the role in 2018.

The NBA then announced this Monday that Chang’s substitute will be 13-year NBA New York City headquarters veteran Michael Ma. Ma will start his new job on June 1.

Is this a calculated move by the NBA to win over China and to specifically get its games back on TV after the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) removed all NBA programming, therefore costing the league hundreds of millions of dollars, as a result of Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey’s tweet in support of Hong Kong last October?

Deep breath…

YES, IT IS! And a very smart tactic at that. Though the CCTV says, “not so fast!”

Question time:

Was Ma hired because of his US-based higher education and vast experience with the NBA and Endeavor China? YES!

Because of this father? YES!

Because he is a Chinese native? YES!

Three for three, not bad.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

Ma earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in the US and started working at the NBA in NYC in 2003. Among various responsibilities, he played a major role in launching the NBA’s China operations in 2008.

INFLUENTIAL FATHER

Ma's father co-founded and then ran the CCTV Sports division for 16 years, bringing live NBA games to China in the 1990’s.

Father Ma is also a very respected basketball executive having helped grow the Chinese professional basketball league – the Chinese Basketball Association – exponentially as the president of Infront Sports & Media (China) since 2008 and serving the last three years as an advisor to the legendary former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming in his role as the CBA president.

The senior Ma coincidently resigned from his advisor position this Tuesday citing personal reasons.

The NBA desperately needs to get back on TV in China and get its business operations back to where they were pre tweet, though that is a long shot.

Commissioner Adam Silver said in February that the NBA has lost upwards of $300 million in revenues in China since the tweet. Hemorrhaging will certainly continue.

The hope is obviously that Ma’s family ties to the CBA and the CCTV, and therefore the Chinese government, will lead to LeBron James and Stephen Curry dunking and shooting again soon on hundreds of MILLIONS of Chinese TVs.

NATIVE SON

Was Chang benched, or better yet cut, by the NBA in order to make Ma the starting point guard on Team China?

It is clear to me. Ma will be the first Chinese citizen to head up NBA China since its inception. I am a bit surprised it has taken this long.

Chang was born and raised in the US to Chinese-born parents.

Is there a difference? Yes, a BIG one.

I am sure Chang was considered an outsider, while the NBA desperately needs an insider with the knowhow and close connections to navigate all the local customs and government red tape while also being someone that they trust to have the NBA’s best interests at heart.

I know firsthand how important this is from my experiences living and coaching there.

WILL MA BE ENOUGH?

It still won’t be easy for Ma while many prominent Chinese, as well as normal citizens and fans, want Morey’s head on a stake. Soon after the Ma announcement, the CCTV released a statement “reiterating its consistent stance on national sovereignty.”

Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times wrote on Tuesday, “Naming [a] native Chinese as NBA China boss is not enough.

“Prominent commentators and fans noted if it wants to win its way back to the Chinese mainland market, it should properly handle Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey,” it continued.

Saving face in China is a REAL thing. It is how business is done and deals are made, or in this case, brought back from the dead.

Ma and the NBA will have to “bow down” in some form to China in order for them to remove the ban, while also saving their own face in the US by not coming across as weak and having backed down to mighty China in the name of revenues and sponsorship deals.

I predict that NBA games will be back on CCTV, at least in a limited capacity, for the 2020-21 season.

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Author Alan Walls is an American international basketball coach and administrator with over 25 years of experience on the youth, high school, NCAA, professional and national team levels in 16 countries and on five continents.  Walls has worked with the national federations of Turkey, Romania, Palestine, Mongolia, Kenya and El Salvador as well as coached or conducted camps and clinics throughout the United States – including his native Hawai’i – Mexico, Argentina, China, Hong Kong and Israel. Walls is the founder and General-Secretary of the United Nations of Basketball (2020 launch).