THE footprint of the NBA has grown at an extremely rapid pace over the last two decades in China, where more than 500 million people watched games last season.

“When I first came here, I never thought the game in China would get to be this big,” Kobe Bryant said. “But it has. And it’s not going to stop.”

Could there be an NBA team in China despite the travel that would be involved? Might there be two-way player contracts between the NBA and the Chinese Basketball Association? What about the NBA constructing a team to play in China or the Chinese sending a team for a full season in the U.S.?

Farfetched as all that may sound, keep in mind that 20 years ago no one envisioned the NBA-China relationship to be this big — or that it would keep growing after Yao Ming’s run with the Houston Rockets ended eight years ago. The NBA has academies in China now, and the Chinese national team returned to the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas this year.

The marriage between the NBA and the world’s most populous country is stronger than ever.

NBA officials say more than 300 million Chinese people play the game and 40 million are registered to play the 2K video game. Thousands showed up this summer just to watch the sons of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James play exhibitions with the rest of their high school teammates.

The team that the U.S. sent to the World Cup in China didn’t feature the NBA’s biggest stars, yet drew sellout crowds for each of its first six games. U.S. coach Gregg Popovich was begged for autographs and selfies everywhere he went.

Stars like James, Stephen Curry and James Harden have a trip to China on their annual schedules. Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz has been to China twice this summer, once to promote his brand, the second time for the World Cup with USA Basketball. He sees it becoming an annual stop for him, too – and believes there is no ceiling for the game globally.

China also sees reason to invest in the NBA. Joe Tsai, the co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, agreed this summer to buy the remaining 51 percent that he didn’t already own of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center from Mikhail Prokhorov in deals worth about US$3.4 billion.

In 2016, Jiang Lizhang, a businessman from Shanghai, bought 5 percent of the Minnesota Timberwolves, a stake he sold earlier this year.(SD-Agencies)