When Chinese fans packed out nearly 30,000 seats in Beijing and Shanghai for the country's first taste of live NBA action last year, international brands like Budweiser and McDonald's weren't the only ones that took notice.
After two years of wooing potential marketing partners in the mainland, Mark Fischer, managing director of NBA China, began seeing a lift in local brands' interest in the NBA following the October games.
First on board was sportswear brand Li-Ning, which last month secured a three-year contract to use logos and names owned by NBA Properties.
Now other deals, Fischer says, are in the pipeline with local companies lining up to utilise the NBA brand's assets - from logos to media properties - to promote their products.
The drawcard has been Chinese hoops star Yao Ming, whose towering success has attracted lucrative advertising deals and inspired national pride.
"We saw viewership increase, rising traffic on the NBA site, increase in magazine coverage in media, and increased interest from business partners," notes Fischer, who joined the NBA in 1997 and set up its Taiwan operation (which he describes as an "incubator test market relative to China").
The once semi-pro basketball player began chipping away at the China market in 2002, after a spell as senior director of marketing partnerships and events for the NBA, a regional position based in Hong Kong.
His efforts over the last two years - as he prepares to relocate to Beijing with wife and two kids - appear to have paid off. China is today the biggest market for the NBA outside North America and Fischer has been given the greenlight to double staff numbers and expand the NBA's properties, which include a Chinese website, Inside Stuff and Hoop magazine, as well as programmes on 14 China broadcasters, including CCTV.
"The watershed was the 2004 China games. We wanted fans to enjoy the NBA experience," he explains.
And that included recreating the all-American basketball experience complete with 200 cheerleaders, dancers, mascots and supporting staff, as well as authentic NBA floors for the arenas.
The response and publicity generated was enough to make any marketer giddy. Tickets for the games sold out the day sales kicked off, underlining that while Chinese fans had watched NBA games on TV since 1987, they were ready for the real stuff.
Fischer, a former journalist, believes the next step - with Chinese fans demanding to wear the jerseys and shoes of their idols - is building merchandising through NBA-branded stores. He will also need to study carefully the NBA's plans leading up to the 2008 Olympics.
"We don't want to go too far ahead and need to have sufficient inventory for partners," he says. "We have to maintain that balance. Now that we have this success, we have to look at the other side of the balance."
To do that, he plans to build the NBA's ground resources, which currently include 12 staff in Beijing and Shanghai. An immediate challenge is to make sure deals are signed and activated properly.
Then, there is the prospect of more Yao Mings emerging in the future.
It's a possibility that can clearly reignite the wide-eyed excitement Fischer once had, but has since buried as contact with NBA stars became a regular workday experience and professionalism required him to treat all NBA teams the same.
FISCHER: ON THE RECORD
Opportunities When I moved to Taiwan, I was doing things I had only dreamed of, playing semi-pro basketball, holding high-level positions.
It wouldn't have been possible elsewhere.
Growth We started in China with two staff. Now, we're in final negotiations with local brands. There's been a dramatic increase in interest in China brands attracted to the NBA brand.
Progress You're trained to put your interests on a backburner when you meet players. I grew up in Boston and supported the Celtics, but now you have to be more objective.
Developments We hold grassroots events and work with the China Basketball Association to grow the sport in China.
Change Playing basketball isn't so much an option now. With age, the knees have given out, so it's more softball and golf these days.
The future There will be more stars out of China. More kids are playing and are growing taller. We are seeing three or four seven-foot players on junior teams.