The National Basketball Association signed a deal Wednesday to bring NBA-style razzmatazz to the 2008 Olympic Games.

The agreement, signed by the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, the NBA and FIBA, the game's world governing body, said the three will cooperate on in-arena entertainment during the basketball portion of the Games.

"We're getting involved now to ensure that various parts of this facility are to world-class standards," said Mark Fischer, managing director of NBA China.

"We're very confident that the world coming to Beijing during the Olympic Games will be extremely impressed with this facility," he said of the Wukesong Stadium, where the basketball competition will take place.

Fischer did not give full details or the cost, but said the bodies would work together "on court design and layout, game production, entertainment" and the training of local staff.

Basketball is very popular in China, especially because of the success of Yao Ming with the Houston rockets.

The NBA has moved aggressively to harness that enthusiasm, turning China into the league's single biggest overseas market. The league generates about 10 percent of its $3 billion (euro2.2 billion) revenue outside the United States, and China is the biggest overseas contributor, league officials say.

About 20,000 stores in China carry NBA merchandise and 347 million TV viewers watch games. China's biggest broadcaster, state-run CCTV, airs four NBA games weekly, while another 50 stations across the country also telecast games.

（Agencies） 

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