Bulls Gain Popularity World-Wide

The Bulls are growing internationally, although they may not quite have realized how popular they are becoming all over the world. Here’s what Chicago player Ben Gordon had to say after an unexpected recognition on the street in Beijing last month. “I got stopped three or four times in a row for my autograph. I was surprised, but it just shows how much the game has become global. People who aren’t even stars in the NBA are household names all over the world and may not even know it. I didn’t. It’s amazing how much the game has grown.” NBA teams are trying to grow the game internationally by holding training camps and playing exhibition games overseas. Grass-roots programs like Basketball Without Borders and coaching clinics on a number of continents are also helping to grow basketball’s popularity overseas.

The Chicago Bulls are one of the league’s most active teams in these efforts, and it’s no wonder that people everywhere are rooting for the team. Gordon ran camps in Asia, Deng traveled to Africa and China the last two summers and Chris Duhon went to China and Paris (both Deng and Duhon were working with Basketball Without Borders). The Bulls’ assistant coaches Ron Adams and Jim Boylan have extensive international experience and even ex-Bulls players Scottie Pippen and B.J. Armstrong played a part in extending the game through conducting fitness and coaching clinics in Asia over the summer. There’s plenty of hard work going in to expanding basketball’s popularity all over the world, and we have the Bulls to thank for a lot of that effort.

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