SALT LAKE CITY, the United States, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Utah Jazz President Steve Starks says that he hopes that Chinese basketball players can join the team in the future and that more of them can play in the NBA.
"We want to see an increasing number of Chinese athletes that can join the NBA and the Utah Jazz. We would love to have that," Starks told Xinhua in an interview in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the Northwest Division team is based.
The Utah Jazz have international scouts who are looking for talent all over the world, including in China, he said, noting that they want to find the "Chinese Jimmer Fredette" and have him to play for the team.
Fredette is well-known in both Utah and China. During his collegiate career at Utah's Brigham Young University, the shooting guard led the NCAA Division in scoring in his senior season in 2011 and was named the National College Player of the Year.
After four season in the NBA, the No. 10 overall pick in 2011 joined Chinese Basketball Association side Shanghai Sharks, and marveled Chinese fans with his ability to score in his three-season spell before returning to the NBA by signing a two-year contract with the Phoenix Suns earlier this year.
The Utah Jazz's interest in bringing in Chinese players lies in Chinese legend Yao Ming's success with the Houston Rockets and in the league, the tremendous potential to promote basketball in China, and the team's history featuring international players, according to Starks.
"There are so many people in China that we want them to become basketball fans," he said. "We want them to play the sport."
Moreover, the team knows that the presence of international players can benefit the team.
From retired Russian forward Andrei Kirilenko and Turkish center Mehmet Okur to French center Rudy Gobert, Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio, and Australian shooter Joe Ingles, who are on the Utah Jazz's 2018-2019 lineup, these players have not only increased the team's name recognition overseas but also made it more diversified and versatile.
Apart from Yao, Chinese giants Wang Zhizhi, Yi Jianlian, and Zhou Qi, along with several others, had played for NBA teams. Zhou was waived by the Houston Rockets late last year, marking a temporary end of Chinese players' appearance in the league, which hasn't affected the Chinese fans' passion for the games.
Starks said that the Utah Jazz attach great importance to the Chinese market, which has become the franchise's "biggest international growth market," and that they are working with the league to promote the team there.
"As we are laying out business plans for the next five years, one of our biggest strategies, our most important strategy, is how do we grow the Jazz brand in China," he said. "We are talking to companies that can help represent us in China."
To connect with its Chinese fans, the organization is focusing on Chinese social media platform Weibo, a micro-blogging site where they have over two million followers.
"We continue to produce content to push on Weibo because we realize that we have so many Chinese fans that want content, they want to follow the Jazz and so we're really promoting that," said Starks, who became president of Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment in March 2015, in the capacity of which he's also the Utah Jazz president.
"The other thing we do is that when we have international games that are broadcast to China, we are actually advertising in arena in Mandarin," he said. "We're trying to communicate to our Chinese fan base and to the NBA fans over there in any way that we can."
He also mentioned that Jazz star guard Donovan Mitchell is scheduled to visit multiple Chinese cities this summer and the team has told the league its willingness to play games in China.
