For the National Basketball Association, February is showtime.

The NBA carries the professional sports world on its back from the end of the Super Bowl through February, and up to the start of the nation’s pastime, Major League Baseball. This annual window is a vital opportunity for the NBA to shine, especially with recent image problems stemming from an ugly 2004 brawl that spread into the stands, a referee that gambled on games and players in trouble with the law.

It’s clear the NBA seized this opportunity wisely in 2008, given its impressive All-Star weekend in New Orleans, the buzz surrounding an exciting trade deadline and improved national TV ratings in February.

“Any time you can own a piece of the calendar and generate some attention for your business, it’s critical," said Paul Swangard, managing director at the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. "It’s their time to shine.”

To be sure, the NBA is not the only pro sports team operating right now. While the NHL’s regular season is ongoing, its role has been diminished, and some experts argue the league doesn’t even qualify as a “Big 4” sport anymore. While the increasingly popular and profitable NASCAR holds events during this lull, its races are generally only held once a week.

The NBA averaged 1.9 million total viewers for its national games on Time Warner’s (TWX) TNT and on Disney's (DIS) ABC and ESPN, according to Nielsen research. Those numbers not only topped December and January ratings, but beat February 2007’s average of 1.6 million viewers.

“I think the brand is more important than the ratings. The NBA has done a really good job this year repositioning their brand. I think that was manifested in New Orleans quite successfully,” said Marshall Glickman, CEO of consulting firm G2 Strategic and former president of the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers.

Many deemed this year’s All-Star game in New Orleans a great success, despite some empty seats and a drop off in TV ratings from the 2007 game in Las Vegas. The league benefited from an incredible slam dunk from the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard during the dunk contest and an emphasis on a new social responsibility initiative called NBA Cares.

According to Nielsen, last month’s All-Star game had an average of 6.3 million total viewers -- down from last year’s 6.8 million total viewers. The lack of a sellout in New Orleans wasn’t blamed on a lack of popularity, rather the current economic conditions in the region. “It was sort of the symbolic reality of the challenges they have in that market,” said Swangard, alluding to the uncertainty surrounding the city’s Hornets franchise.

While the league can’t really take credit for this year’s exciting February trade deadline, which is the last chance teams have to exchange players before the offseason, the NBA seemed to benefit from the buzz nonetheless. “That’s nothing but blind luck…But I think it picked up the coffee room chit-chat – and that helps the NBA,” said Glickman.

The list of players changing teams ahead of this year’s deadline was a who’s who of NBA stars, including Shaquille O’Neal, Jason Kidd, Ben Wallace, Mike Bibby and Pau Gasol.

The deadline “lit up the phone lines of talk radio all across the country and provided the league with another shot in the arm of excitement,” said David Carter, a sports business consultant and professor at USC.

Many have said the NBA was hit with an identity crisis after Michael Jordan retired in 2003. Despite the pressure to crown an air apparent to Jordan to guide the league, a new torch bearer has never materialized.

“The sports media invented that search… I don’t think anybody at the NBA is trying to pull a lever to try to recreate Michael Jordan,” said Glickman. Some have pointed to LeBron James, the 23-year old superstar of the Cleveland Cavaliers as the next MJ but that opinion isn’t shared by everyone – nor is the need to crown a single player.

“I think it’s always a factor but the NBA  has learned that if you live by one star you die by one star,” said Carter.

In fact, some have said the lack of a single star can even work in the league’s favor, given the NBA’s efforts to expand on a global level -- pro basketball’s next great challenge.

“Given the global role of this game, it may bode well for them to have multiple Jordan-esque players,” said Swangard, who warned the league not to lose sight of its core U.S. business. “You just can’t go chasing the dollars in China at the expense of your domestic product.”

It’s not clear yet what a global expansion for the NBA will look like, but some have pointed to a foreign league opening in Europe or China. However, the NBA is looked at as a league ahead of the curve when it comes to foreign expansion.

In the mean time, the NBA will hope to carry this winter’s positive buzz into the playoffs this spring and pray for a dream match-up between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers in the finals to produce mega TV ratings.