Jalen Brunson first experienced the fervor of the NBA’s biggest international market in 2018 when, as a rookie, he traveled with the Dallas Mavericks to China for a pair of preseason games. The trip itself was brief, but the reception that Brunson and his teammates received left a lasting impression.

"The fandom that basketball brought to that country, I thought it was really cool and interesting and something I wanted to be a part of,” Brunson said in a recent interview.

Now a star for the New York Knicks, Brunson, 28, took a crucial step toward that goal before the current NBA season when his representatives at Creative Arts Agency enlisted a digital management company, East Goes Global, to create and run Chinese social media accounts for him. In the months since, Brunson has gained more than 400,000 followers across five of the country’s major apps: Bilibili, Douyin, RedNote, Weibo and WeChat.