I think the foreigner stuff is way overblown and bullshyt. The league just sucks at marketing right now.
Sammy Sosa was a MASSIVE baseball star in the 90s and he spoke broken English at best. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were two of the most popular baseball players in the 2000s.
The NBA has never had its very best players be foreigners outside of Hakeem for a couple years while MJ was retired so it doesn't seem to know what to do, which is ridiculous.