When the Golden State Warriors touched down in China earlier this month for two exhibition games, the reigning NBA champs were greeted like rock stars, with hundreds of screaming fans waiting at the airport and hotel despite their late night arrival.
The greeting in Shanghai and Shenzhen cemented the Warriors as a global brand and one that is especially beloved in the fast-growing Chinese market, where 300 million people play basketball, according to the Chinese Basketball Association.
“It reminds me of when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls used to travel. It was like the Beatles were coming,” five-time NBA All-Star and current television commentator Reggie Miller said, referring to the team that dominated the sport in the 1990s.
“The Warriors have that global effect.”
The Oakland-based team led the league’s Chinese market last season in jersey sales, digital viewers per game (4.1 million) and followers on the Chinese social media account, Weibo (3.8 million), NBA China CEO David Shoemaker told the San Jose Mercury News.
The awe-struck team even received a locker room visit in Shanghai from the global face of tennis and lifelong basketball fan Roger Federer.
Aside from their on-court dominance the Warriors have won two of the last three NBA championships and are the odds-on favourite to repeat this year – the team’s unselfish style of play and colourful roster make them irresistible to overseas fans.
That all starts with point guard Stephen Curry. The 6-foot 3-inch (1.91 metres), three-point shooting maestro routinely makes taller, stronger players look helpless to stop his bombs from downtown or his dazzling drives to the basket.
The team has an edge too, most notably outspoken power forward Draymond Green, who said the unprecedented offseason moves made by the rest of the league to overcome the Warriors juggernaut would not work.
The Golden State Warriors begin the 2017-18 NBA season this week so dominant that a number of teams pulled off blockbuster deals in hopes of denying them a third title in four years.
The Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers are among the teams who made offseason deals for All-Star players with the hope of unseating a Warriors club many feel are too good not to win it all.
Golden State return largely the same squad that enjoyed a remarkable 16-1 romp through the playoffs last season but now face a number of new-look challengers, although their biggest challenge could be complacency. 
Since the Warriors beat Cleveland last June in the Finals, a record seven NBA players who were selected as All-Stars in 2017 have switched teams in the hopes of unseating Golden State.
The Warriors will get their first look at one of those re-tooled challengers today when they host Houston in one of the two games scheduled for the opening night of the season.
As always, we are in for another season of exciting NBA action.

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