Amid a bustling Chinatown in Flushing, Queens, Ken Niu is among the many only-when-it-is-convenient basketball fans. He catches a game when he can, but is not necessarily disappointed when he cannot.
Niu is a target for the Nets, the type of observer who just may be lured to East Rutherford, New Jersey, for the first time by the presence of Yi Jianlian, a 2.13m forward from Guangdong Province in southern China entering his second NBA season.
“It’s like having another neighbor,” Niu, 26, said through an interpreter, between bites of spicy beef tripe. “There’s one Yao Ming. Now there’s a Yi.”
Yi’s name recognition runs high, and people in Chinatown said they would go watch him, if time and funds allow it, but would not necessarily go out of their way to cross the Hudson River.
“In China, along with Yao, he is very famous,” Lei Li Henan, 43, said through an interpreter. “If I’m visiting New Jersey and have the opportunity to see him, I would because we are both Chinese.”
The Nets are hopeful that Yi connects with the nearly 650,000 Chinese-Americans in the New York region and beyond, reeling in a coveted new fan base. And like Yao, the Houston Rockets center, Yi carries global appeal in hailing from the world’s most populous nation.
Of course, Yao entered the league with a refined game, already a bankable star and its top overall selection. Yi, a 20-year-old lanky forward who was acquired from the Milwaukee Bucks, has not played a single game as a Net.
“He has to build a relationship with the community,” said Sunny Moy, president of the Asian American Youth Center. “Right now, everybody is more into Yao because Yi is still nearly a rookie. Yi is a good player, I’ve seen him play, but he has to donate tickets, connect with the kids in order to have an effect.”
Still, the Nets are carefully researching how best to reach their new audience in the most meaningful and lucrative way.
The Nets’ Web site can now be viewed in simplified and traditional Chinese, with nearly 30 percent of its traffic originating in Southeast Asia.
Round-trip buses are being scheduled for games from Manhattan’s Chinatown to the Izod Center. And about 50 games are scheduled to be televised on China Central Television.
That approach is a bit venturesome. The lasting connection will be bridged only if Yi’s potential turns into productivity.
The Nets acquired Yi in a draft-day deal that offered a unique marketing opportunity and salary relief.
What it did not return was the productivity of Richard Jefferson, the Nets’ leading scorer, who was dealt in the trade. Brett Yormark, the president and chief executive of Nets Sports and Entertainment, said the deal was made to put the best team on the court, a place where Yi’s first priority should remain.
“We think we have a story to tell to the Chinese-American community, which we didn’t have before, but it’s not one that we want to go out there and exploit,” Yormark said. “We don’t think that’s the appropriate way. We’ve got to earn it.”
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