Incorporating international best coaching practices into Chinese Basketball Association (CBA): Challenges and strategies

Despite China’s status as the world’s second-largest economy and basketball’s immense popularity, the national men’s team has failed to qualify for both the 2021 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), as the primary talent pool for the national team, plays a pivotal role in this context. Although foreign players and coaches have increasingly entered China’s professional sports leagues, their integration—particularly in basketball—has faced significant challenges. This dissertation explores the complexities of incorporating international best practices into professional sports, with a focus on the CBA. It critically examines the multidimensional barriers that hinder the effective adoption of foreign coaching practices within the league. By using a blend of qualitative methodologies (such as literary-cultural analysis, narrative inquiry, archival research, autoethnography) and descriptive research, the dissertation attempts to provide strategies for addressing these challenges from different perspectives of key stakeholders. From the domestic coaches’ viewpoint, it investigates their role in collaborating with foreign coaches to adapt and integrate advanced international practices. From the foreign coaches’ perspective, it assesses how they can adjust their coaching philosophies and mindset through cross-cultural training to align with Chinese basketball’s unique cultural and structural dynamics. At the management level, the research considers how traditional practices and institutional frameworks can evolve to better leverage foreign expertise. The dissertation not only addresses these immediate challenges faced by CBA foreign coaches but also calls for further research into interconnected areas such as youth training systems, referee management, CBA operational improvements, education-sport integration, fan base development, the sports industry’s growth, and the cultivation of a distinctive Chinese basketball culture.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Kinesiology

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Zhou, Peng

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brownell, Susan
• Sydnor, Synthia
• Tenorio, Cecilia Marinho
• Zhu, Weimo
• Kluch, Yannick

• Coaching
• Cba

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Peng Zhou

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130002

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F130002