On October 20, in the midst of thousands of calls, the new NBA season finally began. In addition to the reorganization and reunion of stars and the appearance of rookies, there are various commemorative events for the NBA to celebrate its 75th anniversary. In China, the ceremony of this season is particularly strong. Behind this is the power of basketball that the NBA hopes to transmit.
Text/ Liu Jintao
Editor / Chen Diandian
Previously, the NBA officially released a new season logo with great anniversary celebration elements, as well as a special edition schedule full of stories, and also recently launched a commemorative short film "NBA Alley", creating a strong atmosphere of memories for NBA users around the world.
Meanwhile, NBA China released a short film about Chinese fans' memories a week ago, "The Power of Basketball." The video takes the history of the NBA's entry into China as the starting point, and invites many grassroots basketball masters and KOLs to imitate the classic moments of the former superstars, and evoke the most precious memories in the hearts of fans in a more grounded way.
Behind the 75 spring and summer, the NBA has been in China for 42 years. Rooted in China for nearly half a century, the NBA has continuously brought pleasing game content to fans, and is also using its own strength to help the development and progress of Chinese basketball. Now, in this very special commemorative moment, the NBA has also expressed its desire to connect and communicate more deeply with Chinese fans.
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"The Power of Basketball" belongs to the exclusive memories of Chinese NBA fans
"We became the first NBA team to come to China and carried out cultural exchange activities." At the beginning of the promotional film, Elvin Hayes tells the memories of the past in a very era-sensitive yellowing picture.
In 1979, the Washington Bullets, led by Neville Chamberlain and Finals MVP Wess-Onseld, visited China for the first time on behalf of the NBA and played against the Bayi men's basketball team composed of Mu Tiezhu, Wu Xinshui, Guo Yonglin and others, and played a number of friendly games. This history is the beginning of the NBA's friendship with China, and it has also successfully built a bridge connecting the two basketball countries.
"At that time, basketball was already very popular in China," Kuang Lubin recalled in a later interview, "the Bayi team played a lot of games and saw a lot of the world, but our team members saw a basketball hall full of 20,000 people for the first time that day, which was too spectacular."
The arrival of the NBA team not only made Chinese players feel the style and tactics of the birthplace of basketball, opened up new horizons, but also planted a seed in the hearts of hundreds of millions of Chinese fans. In 1985, the video content of the NBA game landed on CCTV, and the distance between the NBA and Chinese fans was no longer far away. Those gorgeous dunks, smart skills and fierce confrontation not only attract fans to imitate, but also subtly promote the formation of domestic basketball atmosphere and market, paving the way for Chinese basketball to continue to be hot among generations of young people.
In the decades since, Chinese basketball young talents have emerged and successively appeared on the NBA stage. At the beginning of the 21st century, Wang Zhizhi and Battle successively went to the United States, and then the much-anticipated Yao Ming landed in Houston as a champion, and the three major centers shined in the NBA. Subsequently, Yi Jianlian, Sun Yue, and Zhou Qi also appeared in the NBA arena, continuing the NBA's Chinese story.
Coupled with Zheng Haixia, Miao Lijie, Sui Feifei, Shao Ting, and Han Xu, who have played in the WNBA League, top athletes continue to go to the top sports stage to chase their dreams, and also play the closest emotional bond between Chinese basketball and the NBA. At the same time, under the leadership of these players, the Chinese men's and women's basketball team has repeatedly set new highs in the World Series.
The appearance of Chinese faces and even "Chinese derby" on the NBA field makes this basketball league on the other side of the ocean more closely related to us, and is also subtly influencing generations of Chinese young people, making basketball a part of their lives and growth, and decorating the dreams of basketball teenagers and girls.
As shown in "The Power of Basketball", with the continuous development of the NBA in China, this has become not only a stage for top basketball superstars to perform, but also a way for ordinary people to realize their heroic dreams in ordinary life.
In the film, one NBA famous scene after another, carefully reproduced by grassroots basketball experts and ordinary enthusiasts from the north and south of China, conveys a core message: those who dare to fight, unity and cooperation and perseverance of sportsmanship will occur on any court, even ordinary participants, can play NBA superstar moments, create their own famous scenes.
"We brought together the emotional resonance of Chinese fans and the league for more than 40 years into this promotional film, from the perspective of Chinese fans, with Chinese fans as the protagonist, to create and shoot this promotional film, thus celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the NBA and the opening of the new season." The NBA China interprets their concept in this way.
This is also why the NBA, which often does not hesitate to invite many stars to shoot promotional films, chooses to show the perspective of grassroots talents in this 75th anniversary promotional film, borrowing the hands of you and me, and staged a wave of ordinary people's "memory killing". Jordan the shot, magician hook kill, Maddy moment, Kobe bryant kill heat, Iverson shakes jordan...
The pictures of these grassroots performances tell the story of "the stars we have chased in those years", constantly awaken fans' most sincere memories of basketball, and also show the NBA's sincere attitude of continuing to take root in Chinese grassroots basketball and spread sports culture to the public.
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The 75th anniversary celebration focuses on more fans, and the NBA chose to start with basketball KOLs
NBA superstars gather to bring the basketball dream to the rest of the world. Among the grassroots public in China, there is also the soil for the birth of stars.
In the promotional video, Huang Yujun's "military brother" who imitated Kobe Bryant's shot of the killer ball was actually like many ordinary people, with no professional background and only 172cm in height... These ordinary conditions have become his "talent" for becoming a grassroots star - people can't help but applaud the "Underdog" counterattack story, imagining their own bloody story against the world.
Huang Yujun later mentioned in an interview that his "enlightenment teacher" is a collection of NBA stars, he often watches the extraordinary actions of Iverson, Kobe, "white chocolate" Jason Williams and other people, imitates and imitates repeatedly, once he does not learn it, he repeats it again, repeats it, keeps practicing, and finally practices the strength of the grassroots star.
As the narrator in the film says, "Slowly, the idol is changed from wearing it on the body to dwelling in the heart." A sentence full of emotion accurately conveys the power of this basketball.
We also found that when the promotional film landed on NBA partners Douyin and Kuaishou, fans quickly recognized Cao Yan, Li Hexu, "Reclining Kunlun Monk", Zhao Qiang and Chen Yixie, who in the comments had a bit of a bit of a players, and these players were also responding to the fans' call, and the comment area suddenly became a chat room for active interaction between the two sides.
In the short video platform, grassroots stars do not have any shelves, but they are also a member of the fan base, because this is the base camp for their growth. They have no less influence than professional players here, with high fan stickiness and commercial monetization ability. The reason behind this stems from the natural soil brought about by the short video environment.
As we all know, the short video platform based on "recording life" creates content that is grounded and full of realism, and even if it is far away from the screen, it can bring users the feeling of "zero distance". Therefore, the platform has also brought a new way to tell the basketball story, and more and more fans have seen the competition of the grassroots dimension here, and they also feel the inspiration from ordinary people.
At the same time, the popularity of grassroots basketball masters today is a sign of the development of national basketball. Only when the public's aesthetics and attention reach a certain level, they will spontaneously dig up the stories of the people around them, give birth to one "military brother" after another, inspire more and more young people to shine basketball dreams into reality, and give grassroots sports applause and applause.
For the NBA, the deep connection with grassroots players and even short video platforms can further effectively reach Chinese users in addition to transmitting the spiritual power of basketball. At present, mobile terminals and short videos have become the mainstream form of user-acquired content, and sports are no exception. Taking Kuaishou as an example, the platform now has more than 400 million sports users with monthly active users, with an average daily traffic of 1.4 billion, and 30 million active users sharing sports content on Kuaishou.
Therefore, embracing short videos and basketball masters is also a proof that the NBA is looking for partners who can produce new forms of content, which can quickly cater to the needs of more fans and users, truly integrate into hundreds of millions of Chinese people, and become part of China's basketball environment.
In fact, under the NBA's more than four decades of infiltration, the foundation of Chinese basketball has been played quite firmly, and now the boundaries of the game are regardless of age and gender. We noticed a detail in the promotional video, in the clip imitating the "god of basketball" Jordan completing The shot, NBA China specially selected retired female player Shi Yitong to show the power of women.
Indeed, the craze for women's basketball is on the rise. At the professional level, the Chinese women's basketball team has achieved remarkable results in the just-concluded Tokyo Olympic Games, in which three basketball players won the medal and five women's basketball teams won all the qualifications, which greatly promoted the activity of women participating in basketball; at the public level, Shi Yitong and other female grassroots basketball stars who attracted public attention are also increasing.
It is noted that this trend, NBA 3X also opened up a field for them, in the finals, Weiqiao Entrepreneurship and OURS two teams staged a peak showdown, with basketball girls with basketball dreams on the court to do their best, with superb basketball technology again and again to conquer the fans, to more people to pass on the charm of basketball.
In fact, in the process of driving public participation, grassroots basketball masters can play a different role and value from superstars, which is also one of the original intentions of NBA 3X.
Looking back at the journey in NBA 3X after two years and walking through nearly twenty cities across the country, grassroots players have received no less attention and pursuit than professional stars, the gift of this era, so that they can turn their dreams into careers, but also add a deeper temperature to public basketball - basketball culture is no longer limited to the spotlight, but sinks to every city and every village in China, into the community court, into the campus, into the dreams of more teenagers, so it gave birth to more imitation classics, Show the precipitation and display of sportsmanship.
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NBA – The show just started
"The Power of Basketball" is a heart-warming scene for the 75th anniversary celebration. It is reported that the NBA also hopes to continue to exert efforts online, through different forms, and continue to drive the public to participate in basketball and enjoy sports.
At that time, the NBA 75th Anniversary Theme Page "NBA Carnival" containing limited fan experience, as well as fan interaction activities on Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou and other platforms will also be carried out. In addition, micro-site, a small program that allows fans to deeply interact, has also been launched, and many places across the country will see the NBA's landmark LEDs and outdoor naked-eye 3D to feel the warm atmosphere of the 75th anniversary celebration.
The NBA has gone through 75 years of ups and downs, and the NBA has been in China for more than 40 years. All along, in addition to passing on the spirit of basketball in China, the NBA has also continued to create a friendly and enterprising image.
Last summer, when the domestic epidemic gradually recovered, the NBA brought Chinese fans to the Finals viewing activities, NBA 3X and Jr. NBA League @ Shanghai and other events and activities, with a sincere attitude and the power of basketball, inspiring more you and me. This attraction also allows the NBA to continuously gain the trust and favor of partners in China.
The NBA has been influencing the world for three-quarters of a century, and the wonderful stories staged there have not only attracted the attention of athletes around the world, but also touched the hearts of hundreds of millions of fans, becoming a bridge between sportsmanship and sports culture. At the beginning of the 75th anniversary of the new season, the NBA used such a promotional film as "The Power of Basketball" to take us into memories, relive the stories of the past, and also pack up the power that belongs to basketball with us, put it into the bag of life, and help everyone continue to write an ordinary and great chapter of life on their own life path.
As the film says: Perhaps, some people's pursuit is not on the court, but the world of basketball is so big, the life story of love and struggle is our court.