I'm headed to China next week with the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. I'll be tagging along with their students and faculty as they tour Beijing and Shanghai and meet with some of the key sports business influentials in the region who are ramping up for the 2008 Summer Olympics. I had planned on spending the duration of the trip with the Warsaw Center group until I became aware of a very special event planned in Beijing on September 14th. I was scheduled to remain in Shanghai until September 15th and then return to the U.S. from there, but this event caused me to change my plans and take the 2 hour flight back to Beijing so I could be on hand for a very special evening on September 14th.

I have a friendly relationship with BDA Sports Vice President of Marketing Bill Sanders. He's a fellow alum of Loyola Marymount and he's appeared on Sports Business Radio previously. I'm heading down to LA to speak to his sports marketing class he teaches at Loyola Marymount in October. I have a ton of respect for the job he does for his clients.

Anyways, we were chatting recently and I told him of my trip to China. Because Bill works closely with Yao Ming, he's been over there many times and I was asking him for some insight as this is my first trip to China. In the midst of our conversation he told me about a very special event he was working on with several of BDA's clients......including Yao Ming, Steve Nash and Greg Oden. Bill suggested that if I was going to be over in China, I find a way to get to Beijing on the 14th to attend this game. Its not going to be your ordinary game.

As True Hoop's Henry Abbott wrote today, the event is the brainchild of Yao Ming and Steve Nash and it will benefit Chinese orphans. Yao told Nash about the orphans earlier this year and "Mr. Socially Responsible" himself, Steve Nash wanted to do something to help these children. With the enormous assistance of BDA Sports (Bill Sanders should receive a TON of credit for getting this game sanctioned by the NBA, because without the league's sign off, it wouldn't be allowed to happen), the game event will become a reality on September 14th in Beijing. Yao and the Chinese National Team will face a team of NBA All-Stars that include Nash, Oden, Carmelo Anthony, Bonzi Wells, Baron Davis, Leandro Barbosa and Chuck Hayes.

As Abbott noted on True Hoop, the event will be televised on China's CCTV, and the event will be played before a capacity crowd. The goal of these NBA stars is to raise a million dollars to be distributed to the charities of choice: Chi Heng, a privately funded non-profit that works with children with AIDS; the Special Olympics (with World Summer Games next month in Shanghai); and the China Youth Development Foundation.

In a day and age where negative headlines capture most of the attention, this effort is worth shouting to the mountaintops about. These NBA stars aren't just going around the block for this game. Only weeks before training camp opens, they're flying half way around the world to donate their time to an incredible cause. Its one thing to just write a check to support this effort, but it speaks volumes that these players are going to show up in China for this game.

The NBA should give great thanks to these players (and to BDA Sports). Let's face it, the league has had an incredibly tough last few months with the Tim Donaghy scandal and this effort will create some enormous goodwill for the league as well as much needed positive headlines. The added benefit for the league is that China is quite possibly the most important market on earth to them outside of the U.S.. It certainly won't hurt the league one bit that several of their stars are lending a hand to help and bringing incredible PR value to the NBA in the process.

I'll be in attendance for the event on September 14th and I plan on catching up with Yao, Steve Nash, Greg Oden and some of the other NBA stars to discuss their tremendous compassion for these Chinese orphans.

I'll bring those conversations to you during the September 22/23 editions of Sports Business Radio.