Once upon a time in Yao’s land, a then-rookie Sasha Vujacic teamed up with NBA greats such as Scottie Pippen and Vlade Divac to promote goodwill through Basketball Without Borders (BWB). Other NBA players were in tow, including Yao Ming. Though outnumbered by his American and European counterparts, Yao proved to be the main attraction in Shanghai.

“The only thing you have to remember here, you don’t want to walk on the streets with Yao Ming. ‘Cause if you walk with Yao, you’re gonna get crushed!” warns the short-haired Sasha Vujacic in his 2007 “Under the Lights” interview. “I’ve never seen something like that. I mean, Yao here is President or something.”

Yao didn’t run for office, but he indeed achieved superstar status upon his entry into the American basketball league. He helped popularize the NBA in China to the point where Kobe Bryant’s jersey outsold that of his own last season. Sasha’s jersey may not be in the top 10 yet, but he has definitely earned his own following in China, most especially during the 2007-2008 Finals.

Chen Lu, a Lakers fan from China and part-time sports writer for SLAM China and hoopCHINA.com sums it all up, “His biggest fan base boost was definitely Game 3 of Finals last year. He was always one of the most loved in the bench mob along with Jordy, former Laker Ronnie Turiaf and Trevor. They love him for his toughness on D, passion for the game and, of course, his big shots. Oh, and they love his funny accent, too. They say he reminds them of Borat. But frankly, if you play for the Lakers, you are under a microscope in China.”

Earlier fans of Sasha were very fortunate when he opted to join BWB Asia two years ago instead of going to Africa, South America or Europe. “I wanted to see Asia. It’s really big and to do something like that for the first time in Asia was the right thing. They talked to me about it (the other options) but I got a lot of emails from people around Asia,” explains Sasha to Ty Nowell of Lakers.com. “All four days we were there we had a great time. Not just the players, but the coaches too. We loved it.”

And to think that Mao Zedong once rid China of foreign influences. Basketball is one the few sports which survived the country’s cultural revolution. Estimates now show that 300,000,000 Chinese regularly play hoops which is equivalent to almost the entire US population. As reported by Toronto Star during the 2006 World Basketball Championships, USA Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski commented on China’s love for the sport: “There’s a passion in that country for basketball. You can just see it in people’s eyes. I think people enjoy basketball in the other places we’ve been. In China, it was like they were craving it. You get that type of atmosphere with that populace and that athletic ability, and something really good is happening.”

The NBA’s long-standing relationship with Chinese basketball spans decades. The league has been fortifying its presence in China by building NBA-style arenas, providing content to media outlets, forming NBA China and spearheading coaching clinics, exhibition matches, pre-season games, development and outreach programs, to name a few. With its billion-strong population and expanding economy and interest in basketball, China is clearly the NBA’s largest market outside the United States.