There's a buzz in Atlanta's international community about this weekend's NBA All-Star festivities, but it's got nothing to do with parties, celebrity spotting or worries over traffic.
While the rest of Atlanta rolls out the red carpet for what is expected to be the city's biggest party since Super Bowl XXXIV three years ago, Atlanta's international citizens are not so much celebrating the game as they are celebrating who's playing in it Sunday.
For the first time, a record six international players from six countries will play in the NBA All-Star Game. They are part of the 68-member foreign contingent in the NBA, players from countries where basketball is often a poor cousin to other sports, usually soccer.
Among the 68 is Houston Rockets sensation Yao Ming of China. Yao, a rookie, shocked the industry when he became the top vote-getter in the All-Star balloting, beating out such longtime stars as Shaquille O'Neal and Michael Jordan (with the help of some online votes from his native China).
"There was very, very low interest among Chinese in professional sports until he showed up," said Patrick Ko, an Atlanta investment banker whose company, Everest Corp., is an adviser to the Shanghai Sharks, the team from which Yao was recruited. "Now, there is a tremendous amount of interest because of him. He is probably going to be the biggest star in the NBA."
And as if that weren't enough to get Atlanta's international residents to tune in, the Rookie Challenge -- a meeting between newcomers to the league and sophomore players set for Saturday -- will also include six international players, another first for the NBA.
One of those players, the San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker, is French and could help change the way the game is viewed in France, said Mathieu Boulanger, an Atlanta resident who was born in Nice. The French regard basketball as a middle school game, one that children play before graduating to soccer in high school, he said.
But Boulanger said the last time he was in Paris, Parker's face was plastered in the subway endorsing different products, indicating that he has broken through Gallic indifference to the game.
"Many people in France didn't know he was a player at first," Boulanger said, "but since he's been successful, we know a lot about him now."
Such success stories don't surprise Terry Lyons, a spokesman for the league's international arm.
"This is probably the ultimate compliment to diversity," Lyons said. "Maybe we can all learn a lesson from this."
The inclusion of international players in the All-Star Game is expected to garner big numbers for the NBA. The game will be broadcast to 212 countries in 41 languages with a total audience of about 3.1 billion, the NBA said. At least 287 million Chinese households will receive the broadcast.
"Some people will think this is about selling T-shirts, but the thing is to get some great players from around the world," Lyons said.
And "get" them the NBA has. The 68 NBA players from countries outside the United States include some from as close by as Canada and Latin America to as faraway as Russia.
The league's first international player was Henry Biasatti of Italy in 1946.
He played in the first game of the Basketball Association of America -- the NBA's predecessor -- for the Toronto Huskies, who lost to the New York Knicks, 68-66.
After that, the league took incremental steps to increase its visibility, recruiting players from outside the United States from time to time, entering broadcasting agreements to extend its reach and putting on exhibition games around the world.
The NBA really began attracting international players in earnest after the 1992 Summer Olympics, at which the Dream Team of NBA superstars such as Jordan propelled basketball's stature globally.
Today, the league is capitalizing on this interest with Web sites specific to several nations, including Canada, China, Japan and the United Kingdom. A Spanish language site serves the Latino community.
The payoff is an increased interest in the sport because fans outside of the United States feel they have a stake in the performance of an NBA team because of their nationals on it.
"It's great to see a German playing in the league," Kristian Wolf, deputy director of marketing and consulting services for the German American Chamber of Commerce, said of Dirk Nowitzki, a forward for the Dallas Mavericks who is playing in the All-Star Game.
"Basketball has been a growing sport in Germany in the past decade. The German league is nice and everything, but the money is better here."
The NBA doesn't have to go farther than the confines of metro Atlanta to gauge international interest in basketball. The area is home to an immigrant population from just about every country from which international players hail.
According to the 2000 U.S. census, more than 420,000 metro Atlanta residents were born abroad.
The NBA is taking advantage of this diversity by highlighting its Hispanic market initiative with events for the league's Hispanic players, fans and business partners during All-Star week.
Activities include an invitation-only party with several of the NBA's Latin and Spanish players and salsa superstar Gilberto Santa Rosa at the Georgia World Congress Center on Friday and a basketball clinic for local Latino children Saturday with 6-foot-5 Dominican guard Felipe Lupez of the Minnesota Timber- wolves.
Gabriela Gonzalez, director of international sales and marketing for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, said having someone on the court who looks like you and speaks your language is a powerful magnet.
She recently received a call from a Costa Rican businessman who plans to bring 15 top executives of his company to Atlanta for this weekend's game.
"I was extremely surprised that Costa Rica is sending people here just for the game," Gonzalez said.
Those who have found a new interest in basketball because of the inclusion of their countrymen are not as surprised.
Charley Jin, an Atlanta businessman, said when the Houston Rockets played the Atlanta Hawks in January, a couple of hundred people from the area's Chinese community turned out to see Yao.
"I'm not too crazy about NBA, but because of Yao Ming we are watching all the games," he said, adding that many Chinese will try to catch glimpses of this weekend's All-Star Game, even though it falls during Chinese new year celebrations. "It's a very big audience."
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