BEIJING, April 25 -- It was a moment long in the making as Liaoning won the Chinese Basketball Association championship for the first time in its 23-year history.

After the last game, Yao Ming, former NBA All-star, presented the championship to Liaoning. For Yao, this time is different, because it is the first trophy Yao has presented as the chairman of the CBA League Sports Company.

CBA League reform started with the establishment of the CBA League Sports Company at the end of 2016. The number of teams to enter into the playoff has been increased to 10 this season and will reach 12 in the next four seasons.

To enhance promotion and increase exposure, although the number of games in regular season doesn't change, the games have been rescheduled, running from Tuesday to Sunday every week.

In order to have a steady flow of excellent young players into the CBA League, the CBA Reserve League, similar to the NBA G League, schedules its games during this season as well.

According to statistics from China's Central TV, the TV rating of this season increased compared with that of last season, and set a new record with an average rating of 1.25% during CCTV-5's live coverage of the first game of the finals.

During semifinals and finals, Liaoning moved to the Liaoning Stadium to host the games. Together with Beijing, Guangdong and Shenzhen, Liaoning becomes the fourth team to hold games in a stadium with the capacity over 10,000. Just six years ago, there was not a single CBA formal game held in a stadium at such scale.

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