If you want an Asian team name it an Asian team. Not an Australian team pretending to be an Asian team."
I don't think FIBA will let the NBL have a team based in Asia, so LK has to find another way.
What I'd expect is a something like a team with Chinese owners, who play most of their home games in China, have a deal with Chinese TV, a mix of Aus, NZ, US and Chinese players but are officially an Australian-based team.
So we can't have a team "based in China,"
but we can have a Chinese team playing "Most of their home games in China"???
Putting aside the logistical nightmares and incredible expense of playing NBL games in China.
Presumably the goal (apart from an extra licence fee) is generate viewer support in China and leverage a broadcast deal with a Chinese network.
Now yes, that has the potential to be a huge deal, but you'd need to have a quality product with significant appeal to the Chinese market. China is a major country, with potentially the biggest consumer market in the world. They are not some pisspot developing nation happy to take the westerner's scraps.
Let me put it this way, if instead the NBL entered a team n the Chines League, would we all buy Foxtel subscriptions to watch it?
Particularly if it was just some re-branded Chinese team with a Dodo sponsorship deal???
For starters, we'd need to establish the NBL as a significantly superior league. We could do that with many of our neighbouring countries, but I'm not so sure about China? How much do Chinese players make in their league? I don't know enough.
Then, no matter how you structure it, it needs to be something that grabs the support of the Chinese. A reincarnation of the Slingers isn't going to do that.