Someone named “Danny Granger” on a team called the “Indiana Pacers” (of the relatively unknown Association of National Basketball) went to Indonesia, where the local populace was tricked into believing he was a huge star.

[Granger] wasn’t expecting this: More than 30 billboards promoting his arrival, police escorts to a sold-out arena, throngs of professional and student journalists asking him questions, and photographers constantly taking his picture.

Or this: The Jawa Pos, one of the country’s biggest newspapers, displaying a full-page photo of Granger in his home Pacers jersey wrapped around a front-page story in what the paper called the “Danny Granger Edition.” [...]

Granger was the lone NBA player to make the trip, and the Pacers’ leading scorer last season relished his celebrity status.

Ah, yes.  The cheers of people from a poor country can give one a sense of euphoria.  But be careful, Danny!  Once you’ve liberated Indonesia from the tyranny of cricket, you better have a plan to create an organized basketball league.  Otherwise NBA player deployments could become much longer and more dangerous.  These are difficult times for the NBA.  I mean, they’ve already bypassed an all-volunteer league and implemented a draft.