NBA hires local Microsoft boss to lead China push
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The National Basketball Association has  hired the head of Microsoft&#39;s China operations to lead a new  push into a country that is already its largest market outside  the United States, the league said on Wednesday.
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SHANGHAI, China The Houston Rockets have arrived in Shanghai with hometown favorite Yao Ming declaring himself &quot;here on business.
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Microsoft has tapped a former executive at Walt Disney to fill its CIO position, a move that shows the company continuing to fill top executive positions from outside the company.Tony Scott, who most recently was CIO at Walt Disney, will take over that same role at Microsoft in February, reporting to Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner. Scott, who also will be a corporate vice president at Microsoft, replaces Stuart Scott, who&#160;departed the company in November. The two are not related.Scott will manage Microsoft&#39;s 4,000-person IT organization, which is responsible for all of the technology systems supporting the company&#39;s worldwide sales, marketing, and services operations, as well as the enterprise systems and applications for all corporate processes.At Disney, where he was senior vice president in addition to CIO, Scott was the first CIO to manage the entire company&#39;s IT systems, according to Microsoft. Prior to Disney, Scott was CTO at General Motors and vice president of operations at Bristol-Meyers Squibb.There are a lot of new faces in the ranks of upper management at Microsoft, with a rash of them signing on to the company in the last six months. Just last week Microsoft revealed that company veteran Jeff Raikes, president of its Business Division, will&#160;leave the company in September. The company tapped an outside executive -- former Juniper Networks, Macromedia, and Adobe executive Stephen Elop -- to fill that role.Other new hires to the company since last July include: Dan Reed, Microsoft Research director of scalable and multicore computing in November; Robert Youngjohns, president of North American sales and marketing and corporate vice president in November; Brian McAndrews, senior vice president, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group in August; and Don Mattick, senior vice president, Interactive Entertainment Business in July.There is likely more new blood to come as Microsoft also confirmed last week several other executive departures: Bruce Jaffe, corporate vice president of corporate development; Charles Fitzgerald, Microsoft&#39;s general manager of platform strategy; and&#160;Rob Short, corporate vice president of the Windows Core Technology group.Apart from CEO Steve Ballmer and Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft&#39;s entertainment and devices division, many of the company&#39;s other top executives have joined the company in the past three years. They include the man widely seen as Gates&#39; successor, Chief Architect Ray Ozzie, who joined Microsoft in 2005. Kevin Turner, Microsoft&#39;s chief operating officer, and Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of Microsoft&#39;s Online Services Group, also joined the company that year.
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Basketball Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle signed a multiyear contract extension yesterday and added a new title as executive vice president of basketball operations. The new position puts him directly below CEO Donnie Walsh and president Larry Bird and gives him more clout in disciplinary matters. Terms were not disclosed . . . In an exhibition game in Barcelona, the ...
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Milwaukee forward Yi Jianlian of China and US teen star Kevin Durant, the top contenders for National Basketball Association Rookie of the Year honours, were named on Wednesday as December's top NBA rookies.
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MICROSOFT chief executive officer Steve Ballmer on Thursday stressed the importance of the Asia-Pacific region to the world&#39;s top software maker when he was addressing
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Declaring himself &quot;here on business,&quot; hometown favorite Yao Ming joined Tracy McGrady and the rest of the Houston Rockets on Tuesday as they prepared for a pair of exhibition games against the Sacramento Kings -- the first NBA games played in China.
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Yi Jianlian, the 7-foot power forward from China who was selected by the Milwaukee Buck in the N.B.A. draft, will âdefinitely notâ join the Bucks, according to a report in Tuesdayâs Beijing News.
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The US National Basketball Association is launching a new subsidiary in China, in a sign of the sport&#39;s increasing popularity there, the league announced Wednesday.
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As the widespread coverage of Yi  Jianlian&#39;s NBA move reaffirmed China&#39;s love affair with  basketball, a first-round pick from the 2004 NFL draft was in  Beijing on Friday to promote &quot;America&#39;s favorite sport.&quot;
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The Houston Rockets beat the Milwaukee Bucks 91-83 on Saturday in a game featuring the second NBA matchup between Chinese players Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian.
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NBA China, a new company that will conduct all National Basketball Association business in the world's most populous nation, was unveiled Monday with major US and Chinese corporate support.
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Rod Thorn, who built the New Jersey Nets into National Basketball Association contenders, will return as president and CEO.
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The NBA flew more than 100 people halfway around the world for its first games in China this week. Chinese-born star Yao Ming was there with the Houston Rockets for games against the Sacramento Kings.
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The NBA has come to booming, basketball-crazy China &#151; but it doesn't expect to make any money soon. The league flew more than 100 people halfway around the world for its first games in China, featuring the Houston Rockets &#151; with Chinese-born star Yao Ming &#151; and the Sacramento Kings.
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Declaring himself &quot;here on business,&quot; hometown favorite Yao Ming joined Tracy McGrady and the rest of the Houston Rockets on Tuesday as they prepared for a pair of exhibition
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The New York Yankees will send coaches,  scouts and marketing personnel to China and train Chinese  players at facilities overseas in a bid to boost baseball in  the world's biggest market, top executives said on Tuesday.