NBA China partners with CBA champion Shanghai Jiushi on player, coach and front-office development

SHANGHAI — NBA China and Shanghai Jiushi Basketball Club, the reigning Chinese Basketball Association champions better known as the Shanghai Sharks, have signed a multiyear partnership aimed at developing the club’s players, coaches and front-office staff. The deal, announced Oct. 10, is the first of its kind between the league’s China arm and a CBA franchise.

The announcement landed while the league was staging preseason games in Macao, with the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets meeting in two exhibitions. It also builds on a broader October 2025 agreement between NBA China and the Chinese Basketball Association that covers national-team training trips to the United States, elite talent programs, and coach and referee development. Since 2009, NBA China and the Chinese federation say they have trained more than 3,500 coaches, athletes and officials together.

Four pillars of the deal

According to the joint announcement, the partnership focuses on four areas:

• Elite player development: NBA China will help coordinate training opportunities, development resources and international basketball programs for promising Shanghai Jiushi players.
• Competition and events: The club can take part in NBA events and competitions in China and across Asia, including the NBA Shanghai Classic, NBA-organized invitationals and other regional events.
• Coach training: Jiushi coaches will get development support from international coaches, technical advisers, trainers and other basketball specialists.
• Front-office exchanges: NBA China will arrange learning trips for club executives, including visits to the United States to meet league and team personnel on the basketball and business sides.

What the sides said

Troy Justice, the NBA’s senior vice president for international basketball operations, framed the deal as part of a long effort to grow the game at every level in China. He said partnering with the defending CBA champions is meant to help develop the next generation of elite players, coaches and basketball managers.

Shanghai Jiushi chairman Wang Zhenwei called the agreement an important step in the club’s international push. He said the focus on elite player development is practical and complementary, and that both sides stand to gain over time. Wang also noted that, with NBA China’s support this year, players from the club’s youth system already trained at a U.S. basketball high school — an early example of the kind of exchange the new deal is meant to expand.

Why Shanghai, and why now

Shanghai has been a cornerstone of the NBA’s China footprint for more than two decades. The league played its first regular-season game in China in Shanghai in October 2004, and the city has hosted NBA China Games and fan events ever since. Linking the league’s China office to the reigning CBA title holders puts resources behind a club that already sits at the top of the domestic ladder.

The timing also matches a busy China window for the league: preseason basketball in Macao, ongoing youth and national-team pipelines, and a stated goal of turning more Chinese prospects, coaches and executives into global operators. For Shanghai Jiushi, the partnership is a way to keep its championship core competitive while opening doors for young players who may never reach an NBA roster but can still train in the same ecosystem.

Neither side released financial terms or a fixed end date. The next markers to watch are which Jiushi players enter NBA development programs, which coaches get immersion trips, and whether the club appears in upcoming NBA Shanghai Classic or Asian invitational lineups.