BEIJING— NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says he will resume discussions on the collective bargaining agreement soon after he returns from China, with two months before a crucial deadline.
Speaking before the NBA’s second preseason game in China, Silver said he planned to hold meetings next week in an ongoing process that will include several team owners, National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts and Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul, the players’ association president.
Silver says all sides were “very engaged and eager to get a deal done.”
The current agreement between the league and players runs through June 2021, but both sides have until Dec. 15 to express intent to opt out in 2017.
Silver also announced that the NBA would open development academies in three Chinese cities.
Davis injures ankle
New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis has left Wednesday’s preseason game against the Houston Rockets after hurting his right ankle.
Davis fell to the court early in the first quarter of Wednesday’s game in Beijing, the last of the NBA’s two exhibitions in China. He re-entered the game briefly, but soon walked to the locker room. The team said he would not return.
Davis, the first overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, is a three-time All-Star who averaged 24.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game last season.
Pelicans guard E’Twaun Moore also left the game in the first half with a right heel injury and was not expected to return.
NBA to back China academies
The NBA will provide resources to three basketball training centers in China, one of its most important markets, it announced Wednesday as it seeks to discover the next Yao Ming.
China is the biggest market for the organization outside the US, with an estimated 300 million fans.
Yet while spectators abound, world-class Chinese players are fewer and farther between, five years after Houston Rockets star Yao announced his retirement.
Three existing Chinese training centers — in the cities of Jinan, Hangzhou and Urumqi — will be dubbed “NBA Academies” and will offer top-level prospects “NBA-level coaching, facilities and competition”, the league said in a statement.
Boys and girls as young as under-16s will be involved, it said, and more facilities in China and other countries will join the network later.
Experts say that China struggles to produce new stars to fill Yao Ming’s size-18 shoes because of a lack of casual, grassroots sport in a society where youth are pressured to focus on studies for all-important college entrance exams.
“NBA Academies are the logical next step in the league’s global grassroots basketball activities but are much more narrowly focused on helping elite-level junior players reach their full potential,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.
The NBA said it was its “most significant investment in elite player development”, but no value was available or details of how many students would be involved.
The NBA has previously launched a junior basketball league in Beijing, and worked with the education ministry to have more basketball played in schools.
