What to expect as NBA comes back to China six years after rift over pro-democracy post

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is returning to China six years after being banished from the country following a controversy over a single social media post.

The Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns have arrived in the Chinese special administrative region of Macao, where they will play two sold-out pre-season games on Friday and Sunday – part of a five-year contract with Las Vegas Sands' Macau unit Sands China.

Friday's match will mark the NBA’s first games played in the Chinese territory and the world's largest gambling hub since 2019 as millions of fans await the return of one of the most beloved sports leagues to the mainland.

China has one of the largest fan bases in the world – more than 300 million basketball players to be exact. The demand was immediate as tickets priced up to £46 sold out within minutes, underscoring the enduring appetite for the basketball league in the region.

The Macao games aim to reinforce its presence in China even as U.S.-China trade tensions cast a long shadow over the league’s ambitions.

Kevin Chen, a 19-year-old student, tells The Independent on Weibo: "I am very excited for NBA's return. This will be my first time watching them play live. I thought I'd never get this opportunity."

Chen says he has grown up playing basketball, similar to his friends in Macao, but has never had the opportunity to watch the league play live.

The Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns will be playing two preseason games at The Venetian Arena in Macao on Friday, Oct. 10 and Sunday, Oct. 12! pic.twitter.com/dHHKPKU4dw

— NBA (@NBA) December 6, 2024

The NBA’s popularity in China has expanded steadily since its debut in 1979, gaining momentum with the rise of eight-time All-Star Yao Ming. The NBA last hosted a preseason game in Macao in 2007, when the Cleveland Cavaliers took on the Orlando Magic. And between 2004 and 2019, 17 NBA teams competed in China as part of the NBA China Games.

The Brooklyn Nets took a 17-hour-long flight to reach China Monday, accompanied by their new hire, Zeng Fanbo.

The 22-year-old Chinese forward from Harbin returns as a local favourite and an Exhibit 10 signee vying for a place on the roster. “I can play a game in part of China,” Zeng told the Daily News. “As a Chinese player here, I got to keep working hard and clean out the stereotypes for all the Asians.”

Michael Porter Jr of the Nets says he is excited to bring the NBA to China. "I know there are so many fans, so it’ll be fun".

"It’ll be fun to get our first taste against another NBA team in the Phoenix Suns, so we’ll really get to see where we’re at."

Zeng tells The Independent that basketball has been an integral part of his life, and it was unfortunate that politics made its way into sports. "I am looking forward to the official channels resuming the broadcast of the games. I want to enjoy watching the games with my friends as we tend to do with football," the Shezhen resident says. "I have missed the NBA," he adds.

Mark Tatum, the deputy commissioner of the NBA, says it "is very important for us to be able to bring the live game experience, including live games, to as many fans of the NBA around the world". He added that "our mission is to inspire and connect people everywhere through the game of basketball".

The world's second-largest economy severed ties with the league in 2019 after NBA executives stood behind then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, which cost the league hundreds of millions of dollars.

Morey, now of the Philadelphia 76ers, in a now-deleted tweet, expressed his support of the pro-democracy protests that took Hong Kong by storm in 2019.

He posted an image with the slogan “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” at the height of the protests in the Chinese finance hub. Following the anti-government protests, Hong Kong has undergone a sharp political shift, with Beijing imposing a sweeping national security law that has curtailed civil liberties and redefined the city’s relationship with the mainland.

The backlash from China was swift, with Beijing taking the games off its broadcast channels. NBA commissioner Adam Silver at that time said Chinese officials wanted Morey fired, a claim denied by the Chinese foreign ministry. Months after the incident, Morey told ESPN: "I'm very comfortable with what I did".

Even now, the games come at a turbulent time.

There is trade friction between the U.S. and China, with both sides threatening sky-high tariffs on the other’s exports. And the NBA has long heard criticisms from lawmakers about not taking a stronger public stance about China’s human rights record.

“Much of the sports industry is based on relationships and we think sports plays a unique role in building community – not just in the United States but around the world and particularly at times of heightened division,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

“Whether that division is domestically or globally there’s almost nothing else I can think of that brings together communities like sports does, and particularly a sport like basketball that is globally played, globally understood.”

It took the league years to begin repairing strained ties. Chinese broadcasts of NBA games gradually resumed, and last year the league signed a multimillion-dollar deal to bring preseason games back to Macao. Last month, Nike sent basketball giant LeBron James on a tour of China.

Mark Dreyer, the author of a book on China’s sports industry, tells AFP news agency that the incident was a “perfect storm” made worse by how the league issued differing statements in Chinese and English. “Fans in the U.S. thought that they were being far too obliging towards the Chinese government… (and) the Chinese side thought they weren’t being deferential enough,” Dreyer says.

He says the NBA’s return was never in question, calling China a "key market", with the league reportedly committed to staging two games a year under a five-year deal. "It’s a smart move to go to Macau because it’s a soft landing," he adds.

The Nets and Suns will play at Macao’s Venetian Arena, which is owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which is a casino operator there as well. The games are being held along with a five-day free-to-enter music, fashion and technology exhibition showcasing the NBA brand, where Shaquille O'Neal is among NBA celebrities expected to attend the event.

Sands president and chief operating officer Patrick Dumont is the governor of the Dallas Mavericks, assuming that role after his family acquired the team.

“Obviously, we know this is great for the Phoenix Suns and our community, our whole organization and the NBA,” Suns coach Jordan Ott says.

The casino operator announced its collaboration with the NBA in December 2024 and said it wanted to bring elite basketball directly to Chinese fans.

The Nets are owned by Joe Tsai, the chairman of Chinese tech giant Alibaba. And this NBA season comes with high hopes for a Chinese rookie: Yang Hansen, a 7-foot-1 draft pick who is expected to play a role for the Portland Trail Blazers this season.

The NBA and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba announced on Thursday a multi-year partnership. Alibaba says it would provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services with the NBA and enhance fan experiences on the NBA app in China. Alibaba Cloud will be the official cloud computing and AI partner of NBA China, it says.