Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Aaron Gordon (Arizona) shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the number four overall pick to the Orlando Magic in the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center.
Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Aaron Gordon (Arizona) shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the number four overall pick to the Orlando Magic in the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. REUTERS

The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) popularity at the international level has hit all-time highs in recent years. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is looking to bank on this trend and is even willing to take it further saying the league is willing to adjust the NBA schedule to accommodate the different time zone in the different parts of the world, particularly China, a richly-populated country that has endless potential of having dedicated sports fans.

“Yes, maybe when the audience gets big enough China and you’re reaching 100 million people in China to say so maybe once in a while a team will play at 10:00 on Saturday morning.” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver declared in an interview with Bloomberg via NBC Sports.

Silver mentioned about the time zone difference between the United States of America and China, which is 12-hours apart from each other.

The NBA in China has grown exponentially with the rise of Chinese stars particularly of center Yao Ming, who suited up for the Houston Rockets. Most recently, Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin is one of the players who has Chinese roots and has a big following not only in China but also from entire Asia.

“I think the biggest challenge (to growing the game internationally) is the time zone differences. I mean, for example, in China, roughly 12 hours different from the East Coast. So prime time games are on early in the morning, so you have to figure out whether we need to create new products, condensed games that are shown later, whether it becomes a business of highlights, whether it’s equivalent of tweets and other forms of social media,” Silver, who replaced long-time commissioner David Stern, added in the same interview.

Stern also touched on the scheduling subject when he was still the NBA commissioner.

“I think that the NBA is going to have to wrestle over the next decade as more and more of our viewing audiences are outside the United States is what’s the best time for games to be played so that those fans can enjoy them live as opposed to having to get up in China to watch an NBA game at 7 o’clock in the morning,” Stern said in an NBA.COM article way back in Oct. 2013.

Adjusting the schedule will not only be for the Chinese market but for the entire continent which also has a large following in the Philippines, Singapore and other countries. Asia is predominantly a soccer continent but the popularity of basketball is not far off as seen during the NBA players visit and exhibition games in recent years.

Aside from Lin, superstars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant have a huge fan bases in Asia and the NBA is looking to bank on its limitless potential either via the airing of games or alternative options in following the league in social media.