Chinese Basketball Association

Background

The CBA began play in the 1995–96 season. The league should not be confused with the Chinese Basketball Association (organisation), which was founded in June 1956 and represents the country in matters involving the sport's governing body, FIBA. Basketball in China is currently regulated by the Chinese Basketball Management Center (simplified Chinese: 国家体育总局篮球管理中心; traditional Chinese: 國家體育總局籃球管理中心; pinyin: Guójiā Tǐyù Zǒngjú Lánqiú Guǎnlǐ Zhōngxīn).

Other Chinese basketball leagues include the National Basketball League (NBL), the Chinese University Basketball Association (CUBA), and the Chinese High School Basketball League (CHBL). At one time there was a league called the Chinese New Basketball Alliance (CNBA), one of whose most prominent teams was the Beijing Sea Lions, but this venture lasted for just one winter (1996–97).

The first non-Chinese player to compete in the CBA was Mihail Savinkov of Uzbekistan, who joined the Zhejiang Squirrels in the league's inaugural 1995–96 campaign. During the 1996–97 season, James Hodges became one of the first Americans to play in the CBA, and his signing by the Liaoning Hunters helped pave the way for many more imports from the United States to follow in the ensuing years.

Some other notable foreign pioneers included John Spencer, who joined the Jiangsu Dragons later in the 1996–97 campaign, and David Vanterpool, who inked a deal with the Jilin Northeast Tigers the following winter, and helped the team move up to the CBA in time for the 1998–99 season. The CBA's first international coach was American Robert Hoggard, who led the Sichuan Pandas for the last eight games of the 1997–98 campaign.

Team names

For a full list of teams, see Category:Chinese Basketball Association teams.

The full name of each team usually consists of three parts, in the following order:

1. A geographic designation (except in the case of Bayi, which technically translates into English as "August First," the day China's People's Liberation Army was founded). All others are province-level designations (either a province or a Chinese municipality).
2. A corporate sponsor name. This sponsor may change from year to year, and sometimes even in mid-season.
3. A nickname, such as the name of an animal. This rarely changes.

The presence of corporate sponsor names can occasionally lead to confusion about what name to use in English because many variants may be seen. Team names are usually abbreviated (in Chinese or English), so that either the corporate sponsor name or the nickname is used interchangeably (rarely both). In addition, team nicknames can sometimes be translated into English in more than one way, and corporate sponsors tend to change frequently over time.

Nickname changes are rare, but occasionally happen, such as when the Shandong team switched from Flaming Bulls (1995) to Lions (2003) to Gold Lions (2004) to Golden Stars (2014). Other examples include the Liaoning team dumping Hunters (1995) for Dinosaurs (2008) and then Flying Leopards (2011) -- as well as the Foshan team's evolving attempts to "Anglicize" its nickname—by going from Kylins (2001) to Dralions (2010) to Long-Lions (2014).

In previous years, the title of the league itself was available for corporate naming sponsorship. In 1999–2000 and 2000–2001 it was known as the Hilton League, in 2001–2002 and 2002–2003 it was the Motorola League, and in 2003–2004 it was sponsored by China Unicom. These corporate league titles were not always used in the news media, however, and this sponsorship practice was discontinued at the start of the 2004–2005 season.

Current clubs

While teams are listed by division here, the CBA does not use these designations for regular season scheduling anymore, as each squad now plays each other once at home and once on the road. Divisions are used for the league's annual All-Star Game, however, and are shown here for the sake of convenience.

Timeline

This is a chronological listing of current and former CBA teams according to the season that they entered the league.

Current Teams Defunct Teams

CBA Championship Series

In 2005, the league unveiled the Mou Zuoyun Cup (simplified Chinese: 牟作云杯; traditional Chinese: 牟作雲杯; pinyin: Móu Zuòyún Bēi), which was awarded for the first time to the winning team in the CBA Finals. Mou Zuoyun (born 1913) was a member of the Chinese men's national basketball team which competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics, and he later served as a coach and a pioneer in building Chinese basketball.

CBA Finals appearances

This is a list of teams which have advanced to the CBA Finals and the overall win-loss records they have compiled in the Championship Series.

Regular season awards

This is a list of award winners. Since the 2012–13 season, the CBA has honored two Most Valuable Players, one domestic player and one international player.

* Mengke Bateer (Beijing) was originally chosen as the 2005–06 CBA Regular Season MVP, but he was later stripped of the honor, as a disciplinary punishment for arguing with a referee, which resulted in a suspension.

Records, individual

This is a list of individual records separated into three categories — single game, single season, and career.

Some of these records may be outdated due to the difficulty of obtaining complete statistics from the CBA.

Career

Records, team

This is a list of team records separated into four categories — single game, single season, single season plus postseason, and across seasons.

Single game

Single season

Single season & postseason

Across seasons

Notable players

Listed below are some of the most accomplished Chinese players who have competed in the CBA.

Domestic players from the CBA who are renowned for crossing over to the NBA

Domestic players from the CBA who were drafted but have not played in the NBA

Domestic players from the CBA who are known for league or national team exploits

Foreign imports

Listed below are some of the most accomplished foreign players who have competed in the CBA.

Non-Chinese players who spent more than one season in the CBA

High-profile foreigners who spent just one season in the CBA

Social media

In 2016, the CBA became the first Asian basketball league with one million followers on Weibo, its main social media site.