LeBron visits Beijing

LeBron James visited Beijing as part of his 3 city Asia Tour (Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong) for Nike a couple members of the Nike Basketball Sports Marketing China staff allowed me to tag along with the Nike entourage on Thursday and Friday. It was an amazing personal and professional experience!

Thursday morning started off with a press conference at the Grand Hyatt Wanfuging to introduce LeBron to the Chinese media. LeBron talked to the host David Wu (Asian entertainment personality) about why he was on the tour, what he hoped to do for Nike and basketball in China, and also plugged his shoes. He also sat down with a couple of fans and answered questions from the media.

After the press conference, the caravan of cars were police escorted to the Forbidden City and drove right past the huge crowd of people right up to the entrance. From there, it was chaos as a 20 person team of security escorted LeBron and his crew through the Forbidden City. Just about every Chinese person came up to take a photo of LeBron (not sure if they like the NBA or if it was the first time they'd seen a 6'7" black person) either out of curiosity or because they're fans. It was crazy especially since the Forbidden City is so huge. After that it was off to the Central Business District, where LeBron had a private workout in the gym of one of the hotels. It was cool seeing LeBron go through his shoot around.

Thursday night was the Battleground event, where LeBron witnessed the finals of the 3 on 3 Battleground streetball tournament, a slam dunk contest, 3 point shooting contest, and one on one contest with Chinese National Basketball Team member Yi Jianlian (look for him in the NBA soon).

Friday morning, LeBron went to a court dedication at the Olympic Park (different than the one for 2008), where he showed some kids a couple of basketball basics and then he took part in another Q&A about the court that will be opened in his honor.

It was an amazing two days for me. I got a behind the scenes look at how Nike puts on an event for one its top stars and met a bunch of Nike employees who I hope to keep in touch with in the future. Driving through Beijing with a police escort was also great because the traffic here is horrendous! I seriously felt like I was part of some presidential cavalcade. I'd like to thank Jenny Yu of FUON and David, Tony, Kevin, Apollo, and Kenneth for making my involvement possible.