(Yicai) Dec. 10 -- The National Basketball Association's Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Tracy McGrady attracted around 2.2 million cumulative viewers on his debut as a livestream sales host on Alibaba Group Holding's e-commerce platform Taobao.

Some 400,000 viewers immediately joined the livestream as McGrady began the nearly two-hour event to promote his new brand 13IN35 at 7 p.m. Beijing time yesterday. Despite retiring from the NBA in 2013, McGrady remains very popular in China, partly due to playing with Chinese legend Yao Ming at the Houston Rockets between 2004 and 2010.

The 13IN35 brand, named so in honor of McGrady's iconic 13 points in 35 seconds to secure a 10-point comeback win for the Rockets against the San Antonio Spurs in 2004, launched several new products globally on Dec. 7, with an exclusive 10 percent discount for 88VIP members on Taobao.

McGrady said that creating the 13IN35 brand was about thanking and giving back to Chinese fans. Throughout the livestream, he frequently interacted with viewers, predicting this year's NBA champion and offering advice to retired players while also showing his chopstick skills to taste famous Chinese dishes.

Taobao denied a rumor that McGrady had inked a three-year exclusive deal with the platform worth around CNY36 million (USD5 million), noting that if the livestream performed well, it might consider signing a long-term streaming agreement with the NBA legend.

However, 13IN35 products did not sell particularly well during the livestream, with the brand selling over 100 pieces of only one product, a hoddie priced at CNY699 (USD96.40), Yicai found.

In comparison, NBA superstar James Harden appeared in a livestream on the Chinese version of TikTok hosted by a popular local influencer to promote his wine brand last year, with thousands of orders placed in just five seconds.

Editor: Martin Kadiev