In his adopted hometown of Orlando , Dwight Howard is a blossoming NBA superstar who can still make it through dinner and a movie without being approached by starry-eyed fans.

But on promotional tours in hoops-crazed China , the 21-year-old Magic player gets mobbed by adoring fans who hold him in almost the same regard as Chinese icon Yao Ming.

"It was absolutely crazy," said Howard, still amazed three months later. "I couldn't hardly go anywhere without getting mobbed, so I had to just stay in the room and play video games.

"But I had so much fun the last time I was there, just being around the Chinese people and learning about the culture. As soon as I got back to America I was telling all my friends how beautiful China was."

The star treatment of Howard is a snapshot of the high regard that NBA players are showered with in the country of 1.3 billion people.

Howard's Magic and LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers will be on display in China next week when the two teams fly 17 hours to promote the sport throughout the Far East . The nine-day tour will take the two teams to Shanghai 's 13 million people and the gambling mecca of Macao for three exhibition games and various community events.

China 's hunger for anything and everything NBA is emblematic of the world's growing fascination with basketball. In many corners of the world, basketball is gaining on soccer as the planet's most revered sport.

Four NBA teams - Boston , Memphis , Minnesota and Toronto - are playing games this preseason in Italy , England , Turkey and Spain . And when Orlando and Cleveland invade China on Sunday it will be the NBA's third foray into Asia since 1979.

"This is probably our most important preseason ever in terms of the exhibition games we're hosting throughout Europe and China ," NBA Deputy Commissioner and COO Adam Silver said while in London . "Often now it's become a question of being able to meet a demand. As soon as our games are over in cities like Istanbul , Rome and Shanghai , they are wanting to know when we will come back."

No place is that demand for the NBA greater than in China . Basketball has taken over as the country's top sport, with an estimated 300 million people - the equivalent of the United States ' population - playing basketball.

The country will host the 2008 Summer Olympics, and fielding a basketball team capable of winning a medal has become a top priority with the Chinese Sports Ministry.

Silver was there two years ago when the NBA took Yao back to his hometown of Shanghai for China 's first NBA exhibition game in 26 years. Yao , the 7-foot-6 center for the Houston Rockets and the first Chinese player to legitimately star in the NBA, had to travel separately from his teammates for security reasons.

"I think it was (NBA Commissioner) David (Stern) who said being with Yao in China was absolutely like traveling with The Beatles in the '60s. It was unbelievable," Silver said. "You could see how Yao felt like the weight of the world was riding on his shoulders."

According to the NBA, Chinese fans are already very much in love with the world's premier basketball league:

- Of the 500 million people in China who are 25 years old or younger, 83 percent of them claim to be fans of the NBA on some level.

- Last season NBA games and programming were available on a record 51 television stations in China , up from 32 stations the year before. Viewership surpassed 1 billion for a second consecutive season. At least 32 million viewers a week tuned in for NBA telecasts this past season.

- The NBA claims that almost 400 million pieces of memorabilia and jerseys were sold in China last year. China is Spalding's top market outside the U.S. with projected sales of more than 1 million basketballs this year. And all NBA-related retail sales are expected to jump 40 percent this season.

- The idolization of the NBA's top stars is so broad that Yao only ranks sixth in China in jersey sales. Instead, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Dwyane Wade and James move the most products in China .

"The fan support in China is unbelievable," James said. "How the kids are inspired about basketball is unbelievable. I'm definitely looking forward to the trip and looking forward to meeting those fans out there."

Because the NBA views China as a potential source for tremendous growth, the league has expanded its tentacles throughout the country. Tim Chen, a former CEO for Motorola and Microsoft in China , was appointed CEO of NBA China on Oct. 15. Seventy NBA employees are based in offices in Beijing , Shanghai , Taiwan and Hong Kong .

And for the China Games the league has teamed with marketing partners such as adidas, Coca-Cola, DHL, Gatorade, McDonald's, Motorola and Toyota to help grow the game throughout a country that possesses one-fifth of the world's entire population.

"We've discussed it at the Board of Governors meetings of how we're going to grow the business there in China ," Magic Chief Operating Officer Alex Martins said. "Clearly, there is a business plan being developed to determine how NBA China looks and grows over the next decade. It's safe to say the league will have a significant presence in China for years to come."

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