The NBA's In India, Too

The Lead

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3.9 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2019

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the NBA stays locked in a political standoff with China, the league has also made a big move in another major overseas market: India. The league played its first-ever preseason game in India two weekends ago. The Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings tipped off in Mumbai before a crowd of 4,500 people -- oddly, most of them were children. The Athletic’s Sam Amick joins us to talk about how the game went and how the move fits into the NBA's larger strategy of global expansion. Shaun Jayachandran also reports from the ground.

The Athletic’s Sam Amick on the NBA’s quest to grow the game around the globe:

https://theathletic.com/1273376/2019/10/07/nba-india-diary-sacramento-king-indiana-pacers-preseason-trip/?source=theleadpodcast

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So, Kavita, this situation with the NBA in China finally seems to be calming down a little
0:12.0	bit.
0:13.0	There's been no major catastrophes in the last like 72 hours.
0:16.7	Yeah, except for maybe LeBron last night saying that Dara Mori, quote, wasn't educated
0:21.5	on the situation in Hong Kong.
0:23.5	Right.
0:24.5	But during this whole drama, there's another story that has been completely overlooked.
0:29.7	The NBA has also been expanding into another major international market.
0:34.7	A historic, chump-ball, and history is made here in India.
0:41.0	For the first time, NBA preseason games were played in India, right around the time that
0:46.5	the China story first blew up.
0:48.3	And India is also a really important market for the NBA.
0:51.1	I mean, there are over a billion people there.
0:53.5	They have a rapidly growing economy and apparently a growing interest in basketball.
0:58.8	So today we're going to talk to two people who are at those games to hear how the games
1:03.7	went and how much people in India actually care about basketball.
1:08.3	And the NBA's plans for global domination.
1:11.8	And we'll start with Sam Amick, a senior NBA writer for the athletic.
1:16.6	From wondering in the athletic, I'm Kavita Davidson.
1:19.0	And I'm Anders Keltow.
1:20.3	It's Tuesday, October 15th, and this is The LeBron.
1:24.8	It felt like something great was happening.
	...

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