NBA, pushing into Yao Ming's homeland, launches Chinese-language Web site

Wednesday, January 15th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BEIJING (AP) _ Riding the wave of the soaring popularity of rookie center Yao Ming, NBA marketers are taking aim at the planet's biggest potential pool of basketball fans and encouraging them to adopt the league's mantra: ``I love this game!''

Expanding its campaign to make China's 1.3 billion people hungry for American basketball, the league on Wednesday launched its Chinese-language Web site _ and said the big man from the Houston Rockets was leading the way.

``Our timing couldn't be better. Interest in the NBA in China is growing, driven in major ways right now by Yao Ming,'' said Michael Denzel, the league's vice president and managing director for Asia.

For the last two decades, the NBA has tried to instill an interest in American basketball. Only recently, though, has it begun to see results: It just opened an office in Beijing and now publishes a Chinese-language version of its official magazine. And NBA exhibition games could debut in China later this year, Denzel said.

Star players visit regularly _ Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers among them _ and Chinese broadcasters have also signed on to show games, reaching nearly 300 million households so far. The NBA wants more.

``Basketball in China is still a virgin land,'' said Jin Yong, who runs a fan club for the Shanghai Sharks, Yao's former team. ``The more you spend to explore the market, the more you will get.''

The Web site was a natural progression, Denzel said _ a combination of the growing popularity of the Internet in China, which has 60 million users, and the popularity of Yao Ming, the 7-foot-5 Rockets rookie center.

Like its American counterpart, the colorful Chinese site features game stories and results, player stats and bios, team rankings, transactions, schedules, lots of pictures _ and, naturally, a link to the NBA merchandise store, always a big moneymaker.

Creative adjustments to accommodate the language barrier have also been made.

NBA team names have been translated to their closest approximations, with sometimes poetic results: ``Hot Fire'' for the Miami Heat, ``Brave Soldiers'' for the Golden State Warriors, ``Male Cow'' for the Chicago Bulls and the phonetic ``Ni Ke Si'' (pronounced ``nee-kuh-suh'') for the New York Knicks.

``We're providing a one-stop shop for everything you'd want to know about the NBA,'' Denzel said at a news conference filled with Chinese faces _ reporters and businesspeople alike.

The league is running the site with the help of Sohu.com, one of China's largest Internet portals. Charles Zhang, Sohu's chief executive officer and president, said a test version of the site has received 1.2 million hits in the three weeks since it was put online.

More than 40 percent of hits on the main nba.com Web site come from outside the United States, and China's 7 percent makes it the largest contributor, Denzel said. Specially designed Web sites also target audiences in Latin America, Spain, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Yao, 22, was already a star at home with the Shanghai Sharks before becoming the NBA's No. 1 draft pick this season. He is only the third Chinese to play in the U.S. league, after Wang Zhizhi of the Los Angeles Clippers and Menk Bateer of the San Antonio Spurs.

He has quickly become one of the league's most recognizable marquee performers, and was named the Western Conference rookie of the month for December, even as American sportscasters keep referring to him erroneously as ``Ming'' _ his given name in Chinese, where the last name is said first.

Yao, who leads Shaquille O'Neal for the starting Western Conference center spot in fan balloting for the NBA All-Star game, meets O'Neal for the first time Friday when the Rockets host the Los Angeles Lakers.

On the new Chinese Web site, Yao is shown on the front page wearing a bright red Houston Rockets ``Authentic Shooting Shirt.'' One click sends users to the online store, where it's on sale for $59.99. Clearly, the league knows he's the ticket to Chinese fans' hearts.

``I don't think the NBA has much appeal to us without Chinese players like Yao Ming,'' said Fei Fusheng, a member of the 100-strong Shanghai Sharks fan club.

But Fei acknowledged increasing NBA promotions in local markets will attract Chinese audiences.

``Compared with the Chinese Basketball Association, the NBA cares more about their fans. They know much better how to draw audiences,'' he said. ``Their posters, advertisements, commodities are all different. If they can put all these colors on Chinese players, I am sure they would win more hearts in China.''

Jin, the fan club's president, said he sees a bright future for the NBA in China.

``NBA is true basketball, but it is still unknown to most Chinese fans,'' he said. ``If it comes closer to China, I am sure it will have the biggest population of NBA fans in the world.''