Raj Bhathal is a key player in the NBA’s bid to extend its brand to his native India.
The founder of Orange County’s largest swimwear maker will join NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on a December trip to India. The contingent will aim to lay the groundwork to bring the league’s first games—preseason exhibitions—to the country and its population of more than 1.2 billion.
“The NBA recognizes India is a big market, like China, and I certainly have a strong personal interest in growing our game internationally, particularly in India,” said Bhathal, a resident of Big Canyon in Newport Beach.
He was part of an ownership group headed by Silicon Valley software executive Vivek Ranadivé—a fellow native of India—that acquired a 65% controlling interest in the Kings last year from Joe and Gavin Maloof.
The Kings are one of only two NBA teams run by foreign-born owners or headed by minorities.
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov acquired majority ownership in 2010 of the then-New Jersey Nets for $223 million and moved the team to Brooklyn two years later.
Michael Jordan acquired a majority stake in the Charlott, N.C., franchise in 2010 for $275 million.
Bhathal, who took an estimated 25% stake in the Kings, co-founded Tustin-based Raj Manufacturing LLC with his wife in 1967. He sold the company, which now has an estimated $130 million in annual sales, to his children in a 2007 deal led by Swander Pace Capital LLC in San Francisco.
The Kings have played a pivotal role over the past few years in an NBA initiative to broadcast games overseas. Last year, the league aired a record 14 games in India, up from six the season before. The NBA is now broadcasting games in more than 200 countries and territories in nearly 50 languages. China is its largest international market.
The NBA preseason tipped off last week, with nine teams slated to play five games in six countries. Bhathal was part of an executive contingent that flew to China last week to watch the Kings take on the Nets in Shanghai and Beijing.
Those games will give Bhathal opportunity for an up-close look at the Kings’ newly signed free agent and Toronto native, Sim Bhullar, a 7-foot, 5-inch center who last month became the first player of Indian descent to sign an NBA contract.
