The relationship between the NBA and China, which had cooled due to a tweet by the general manager in 2019, is thawing with Friday’s announcement that two preseason games will be held in Macau in October.
The Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns will play on 10 and 12 October 2025 at the Venetian Arena in Macau, marking the first games since 17 NBA teams played 28 preseason games in China from 2004 to 2019.
Basketball is extremely popular in China and the market was worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the NBA. However, a rift was created when then Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for anti-government protests in Hong Kong in October 2019.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver upheld freedom of personal expression and did not punish Morey, the current general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers.
In response, lucrative sponsorships were halted and league games were not broadcast on CCTV, the state-sponsored broadcaster in China, for a year after Morey’s tweet. Silver estimated in 2021 that the NBA lost $400 million that year due to the frayed relationship.
NBA games, however, began appearing regularly on CCTV in 2022 and became available on a streaming service.
NBA players, including stars Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and De’Aaron Fox of the Sacramento Kings, have made appearances in China. Macau will host a celebrity basketball game on Saturday featuring former NBA stars.
The Venetian Arena is owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp, which operates a casino there. Macau is the only place in China with legal casino gambling. Dallas Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont is the president and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands.
Joe Tsai, co-founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, owns the Nets.
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