The 2018 CBA All-Star Weekend came to an end in Shenzhen. Since Yao Ming became the chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association in February 2017, many reform measures of Chinese basketball have been carried out in an orderly manner.

The CBA is responsible for promoting the progress of China's basketball industry, but at the same time, it cannot get rid of the natural attribute of profit-oriented. In order to make a profit, it is only part of the game to make the game more exciting, but also to increase interaction with other industries to attract and convert more fans, in order to gradually expand market share.

At this CBA All-Star Game, the champion of "China Has Hip Hop" GAI sang to help, and Li Yifeng trained with the players and bluntly called for the little fresh meat players, which are typical cases of CBA interaction with the entertainment industry.

Sports and entertainment have always been two closely related industries. There is considerable overlap in the fans and traffic of the two, and because China's current sports industry is not sound enough, the entertainment industry has absorbed many sports industry personnel. For example, retired athletes participate in variety shows or film and television dramas. At present, there are hundreds of sports-type variety shows in China, and the recently popular "Tucao Conference" has also produced an issue of content with sports as the main body.

On the other hand, in the NBA, BA's All-Star Weekend will invite popular singers to perform, and a large number of entertainment industry traffic will be responsible for watching the game live. There are also many examples of American hip-hop artists singing songs with NBA players. There have even been a number of NBA active and retired players who have made their own films.

Chinese athletes enter the entertainment industry mainly to open the door to variety shows, and they only participate in film and television dramas, and there are few successful examples of complete transformation from athletes to artists.

Just from the aspects that are visible to the naked eye, doing simple mathematical calculations, you can draw the gap between the NBA and the CBA in terms of the ability to attract money.

The CBA currently has a total of 20 teams with a total of about 300 players; The NBA has 30 teams with a total of about 450 players.

Most of the CBA's current competition venues can accommodate about 4,000 people, and the largest venues can accommodate up to 18,000 spectators. The NBA has seven venues with a capacity of more than 20,000, and the rest are around 18,000.

Tickets for CBA games range from tens to thousands of yuan, and tickets for NBA games range from tens to thousands, but the unit is in dollars.

In contrast, it is clear at a glance. From the perspective of basketball games, the two most fundamental projects of the CBA and NBA leagues, there is a huge difference in the ability of the two to attract money. If we include related industries, the gap is even more obvious.

For example, CBA renewed its sponsorship contract with Li Ning in August 2017, and BA switched to Nike jerseys this year, which was signed in 2015 for eight years, $1 billion. After a simple conversion, Nike's contract with the NBA is about four times the size of the CBA and Li-Ning.

Nike and its Air Jordan now account for 96% of the global basketball market. Nike's contracts with NBA stars are often hundreds of millions of dollars, and the retail of NBA player jerseys, signed shoes, and basketball-related accessories behind it is one of the main reasons why Nike has been able to monopolize the basketball market, and it is also a direct reflection of the NBA's ability to attract money.

Although domestic sports brands do not issue excellent products, they are still mired in the embarrassing whirlpool of "wearing Xtep blind date rejection", CBA players' ability to endorse products has not yet been tapped, and domestic sports brands such as Li Ning, Anta, and Peak that have a certain reputation in the basketball field still need to use the influence of NBA players to seize the market.

Since its establishment in 1995, the CBA seems to have been on the road of emulating the NBA, and the NBA can be seen in terms of the competition system, rules, system, operation model, player selection model, team structure, broadcast model, etc. But it's never a good idea to keep chasing others.

Yao Ming has already seen this. It can be said that Yao Ming has brought more than just an IP to the Chinese basketball industry, but also several honors and the most glorious era of Chinese basketball. Yao Ming, both as a player and after retiring, has been doing what he can to make profound changes in the Chinese basketball industry.

Whether it was before or after he became president of the Basketball Association in February last year, Yao Ming was trying his best to improve the CBA's operating model. In 2016, Yao Ming took the lead in establishing the China Vocational Federation Company, hoping that the CBA League would successfully achieve the separation of management and management, and put forward two sets of plans for this.

The first step of the first plan is to establish a CBA company jointly invested by the Chinese Basketball Association and the club (the Chinese Basketball Association accounts for 30% of the shares, and the other 20 clubs all account for 3.5%; A total of 70% of the shares), the Chinese Basketball Association will authorize the league business rights and event promotion rights to CBA Company, and CBA Company will have full authority to decide on league business development and event promotion matters; The second step, when the time is ripe, the Chinese Basketball Association will authorize the right to organize the competition to CBA.

The second plan is for the participating clubs of the CBA to form a CBA professional league together with the Chinese Basketball Association and relevant parties, and to establish a business and event operation company under the framework of the professional league.

CBA companies want to be market-oriented, and BA companies need like-minded partners who can cooperate for a long time, not only to bring funds to CBA companies, but also to bring resources and advanced management models. Yao Ming has said that the purpose of the reform is to improve the overall standard of Chinese basketball and help the national team make breakthroughs, not to make money.

Today, the CBA company has independently operated the league for the new season, and the CBA has achieved a real separation of management and management. A series of localized reforms have also been carried out in terms of the competition system, the number of teams, the time of the game, the training method, and the punishment measures, making the CBA league more like a Chinese game.

Judging from the 2018 CBA All-Star Weekend, although there is still a big gap with the NBA in terms of pure game scenes and the ability to attract money behind the league, the CBA has made great progress.

Reform is not something that can be completed overnight, and BA's reform cannot be completed by Yao Ming alone. He's more of a bond, a CBA veteran who has spent prime time in the NBA, and he's able to combine Chinese basketball with many other industries, as well as Chinese basketball with world basketball.

However, the reform of China's basketball industry will eventually return to the players who are in their playing years, and their love and persistence in their profession is the greatest help for all reforms.