The Economic History of the NBA

11.5 million people in the United States have been watching the NBA finals this past week between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets. The very best basketball players including one that is playing right now in the finals are from outside the United States so I guess I'm curious when exactly did basketball become so internationalized and what exactly triggered that development as far as you can tell. Since 2006 really the NBA has been doubling down on its globalization strategy and the recruitment of talented European, African, Asian players to the league has contributed to that very dramatically in the last decade or so.