Charlotte Hornets' boss Michael Jordan attends a news conference ahead of his team's match against Los Angeles Clippers in Shenzhen, China on Oct. 11, 2015. (Xinhua/Wu Lu)
SHENZHEN, China, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Basketball legend Michael Jordan may never have imagined that China has become such a huge basketball market 11 years after his first visit.
The 52-year-old revisited the country as Charlotte Hornets' boss, participating in 2015 NBA Global Games here.
It has been 11 years since his first trip to the country when he retired from basketball with 6 NBA championships rings, 6 NBA Finals MVP awards and 10-time NBA scoring titles under his belt.
"We've seen that China has become one of the fast growing basketball fans in the world. I would have never thought that it would grow so fast and big," Jordan recalled his prime time in NBA during 1980s and 1990s.
After 20 years of development, China's top basketball league the CBA has expanded from eight teams in its inaugural year 1995 to 20 teams now and recorded a stunning number of 740 million viewers during the 2014-2015 season, according to the statistics from the Chinese Basketball Association.
Much has changed in China but Jordan remains a popular figure among Chinese fans, many of them growing up watching Jordan play.
Su Bingtian (right) shakes hands with Michael Jordan during the game between Charlotte Hornets and Los Angeles Clippers in Shenzhen, China, on Oct. 11, 2015. (Su Bingtian's Weibo)
Su Bingtian, top Chinese sprinter and member of silver medal winning 4x100m relay team in recent athletics world championships, was one of them.
"I was so nervous when I actually faced him. Hats off to Jordan the Great," Su wrote on Weibo, Chinese equivalent to Twitter after he met Jordan.
Jordan's popularity here will be a big help when he promotes his team in the Chinese market and seeing the success of NBA Global Games in China, he is confident that the basketball's development will never stop in the future.
"I think that it will continue to grow. I think that players will enjoy coming over and relating to their fans here," said the Hornets boss confidently.
During this summer, Hornets added some new faces in their roster, including Nicolas Batum and Jeremy Lin. Moreover, the city of Charlotte will host the NBA All-Star Weekend in 2017, along with the team's arena renovation.
In Jordan's eyes, it's all about the team's need for growth.
"We still have some more to come. We want to continue to grow in our city, which gives us a lot of supports. We want to be the winning team and compete in the playoffs," he commented.
Jordan's team upset Los Angeles Clippers 106-94 on Sunday, with the second game in Shanghai next Wednesday.
