On May 17, the National Basketball League (NBL) held a news conference titled “Splendid NBL-It’s not just basketball” at Damei Center in Beijing.

Brands like Anta, HIKVISION, Spalding and Gatorade were announced as sponsors of the NBL, the second-tier league to the professional Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

Anta Vice President Li Ling said, “As an official partner of the NBL, Anta plans to promote the development of Chinese basketball, from professional basketball to campus basketball, to community basketball, aiming to provide premium services for all basketball fans.”

The NBL promotion and marketing head, Huang Tao, commented, “The NBL is about basketball, about professional basketball, but it’s not just basketball. Taking basketball as a center, we are creating and delivering value through digitalization, pan-entertainment and localization.”

The CBA Chairman Yao Ming also recognized the NBL’s reform achievements in his speech. As he pointed out, NBL is the trailblazer of Chinese basketball, and perhaps even the entire Chinese sports industry, as the league officially started separating public service units from the government. The second-tier league has contributed to the overall development of Chinese basketball divisions, city basketball culture and sports culture products.

The 2018 NBL is scheduled to kick off on June 10th with Hunan Yongsheng VS Hubei Dangdai at Ningxiang in Hunan Province.

Source: Sohu

Proofread by William Logsdon