As part of The Chronicle’s coverage of the Warriors’ trip to China, beat writer Connor Letourneau is posting regular first-person accounts of what he observes.
SHANGHAI — Twenty-seven years ago, Rob Levine became the NBA’s first employee based in Asia. With no office of his own, Levine — then a vice president for international development — worked from an apartment in Hong Kong and awoke early in the morning for conference calls with colleagues in New York.
On Saturday afternoon, while watching more than 15,000 people pack into Shanghai’s Oriental Sports Center for the NBA’s Fan Appreciation Day, I thought about how Levine must feel to know how much the league has grown here in less than three decades.