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Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, shoots as Denver Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic watches on. The pair will play in the NBA All-Star game. Photo: AP
SportBasketball

NBA All-Stars thank Chinese fans ahead of NBA’s return to TV

  • ‘A big Thank You to all my fans in China! Cheers to being an All-Star again. Never take it for granted!’ says Joel Embiid
  • All-Star game on March 7 is reported to be shown on CCTV, before NBA broadcasts resume as normal
NBA (National Basketball Association)
Jonathan White
Jonathan White
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Some of basketball’s biggest stars have thanked their Chinese fans for voting them into the NBA All-Star game ahead of tip off in Atlanta on March 7.

“A big Thank You to all my fans in China! Cheers to being an All-Star again. Never take it for granted!” the Philadelphia 76ers four-time NBA All-Star Joel Embiid wrote on Weibo.

This year’s first time starter Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets was another to thank Chinese fans.

“I‘m Jokic, Teacher Jo. And go Nuggets! I love you all!” Jokic attempted to say in Mandarin with the help of a translator on a video posted to Weibo. The 26-year-old Serbian star is known as “Teacher Jo” by his Chinese fans.

Philadelphia 76ers‘ Joel Embiid in action in the NBA in 2018. Photo: AP
Those fans are set to be able to see this year’s All-Star game on television, with reports that CCTV will resume NBA broadcasts from the annual celebration.

Terrestrial television stopped screening games in October 2019 after then Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters.

All-Star game will see NBA return to Chinese TV: reports

The only games shown on CCTV since were the last two games of last year’s NBA Finals, almost a year after the blackout began. None of this season’s games have been shown.

Despite that the NBA remains hugely popular in China and Chinese basketball fans have been a key part of the All-Star voting for years.

The NBA began offering ballots in Chinese ahead of Yao Ming’s first All-Star appearance in 2003.

Houston Rockets star Yao started for the West ahead of Shaquille O’Neal, who had won the last three NBA Finals MVP awards.

Yao clocked in almost 250,000 more votes than O’Neal and became the first rookie to start an All-Star game since Grant Hill 18 years earlier. The Chinese superstar would go on to play seven more times in the NBA’s annual showpiece.

Fan votes for the All-Star game are weighted at 50 per cent with NBA players and the media accounting for 25 per cent each.

Injured China favourite Klay Thompson gets 100,000 All-Star votes

China fan favourite Klay Thompson clocked in a large number of votes this year – the ninth most among guards in the West – despite not having played since the 2019 NBA Finals. He finally missed out on selection after getting only one player vote and none from media.

The All-Star game has long been a way for the NBA to reach out to its biggest market.

Last year, the game marked China’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic with “Stay Strong Wuhan” shown on screens at the game, while youngsters from China have attended in recent years as part of the Junior NBA China and Basketball Without Borders programmes.

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