SYDNEY, June 23 -- In China, basketball is experiencing a resurgence under the stewardship of NBA Hall of Famer Yao Ming while in the land down under, the sport is also undergoing somewhat of a renaissance.

The chief executive officer of the National Basketball League, Jeremy Loeliger, told Xinhua this week their change was running concurrent with the great strides being made in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

"We have really reinvigorated the product and as a result our partners have really got behind it and are helping us put it back into the mainstream sporting environment here in Australia, and obviously we are starting to make headway overseas as well," Loeliger said.

As basketball is the most popular sport in China - according to the Sporting Goods Industry China Report 2017 - as well as being the sport with the biggest market in the Asia-Pacific, Loeliger hopes the relationship between the NBL and the CBA could grow stronger.

Currently, NBL games are streamed into China, while at the same time teams from both countries participate in pre-season exhibition games against one another, and according to Loeliger, this is only the beginning.

"Basketball is a truly multicultural sport, it's played in virtually every country in the world," Loeliger said.

"We need to transcend the borders of the Australian population in order to be sustainable and successful in the long term,"

"We will be sustainable here in Australia, but in terms of taking the game to the next level, both for the Australian market and for the Chinese market, I think we, and the CBA, need to work more closely together," he added.

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