In the last few weeks, Brett Yormark flew to Beijing, where he and Kevin Garnett hosted a dinner for 30 executives, all of whom got a KG uniform jersey. Then later, he flew with Irina Pavlova to Moscow, where they hosted an even bigger event at Mikhail Prokhorov's ONEXIM offices, this time with Andrei Kirilenko hosting.
In January, the team will fly to London to play the Hawks in the O2 arena.
The NBA is on an international push and why not? Its players want to push their brand internationally, particularly in Asia, and each NBA team has a 1/30th share of NBA INternational.
Yormark is not shy about the ultimate plan for the Nets, as the Nets CEO tells Bloomberg News.
"We want to be the home NBA team in Beijing. We want to be the home NBA team in Moscow. So we have global aspirations and with the star power we have now, and especially when you speak to Russia with Andrei Kirilenko, we have the direct connect to those consumers and now we have to leverage it."
Noting that "We're on a championship journey" and "this is our time, this is our moment," Yormark told Bloomberg News the team will be "on television a lot in China. We will be a featured team in China (on NBA TV)."
NBA teams do have some limitations in making a lot of money overseas. A lot of the merchandise sales revenues have to be shared, but it helps in attracting players who want to extend their brand to places like China, where superstars like Garnett are making millions on footwear and sportswear deels.
Yormark credits Prokhorov for a lot of the success. "This thing has grown exponentially since Prokhorov bought it three plus years ago.
That doesn't mean he is forgetting Brooklyn or New York. "We want every fan between Brooklyn and Beijing," said Yormark, spreading his arms wide. "I want to do something very special for Brooklyn."
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