Your support helps us tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to big tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the finances of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word,’ which shines a light on American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know the importance of analyzing the facts of messaging. .
At such a critical moment in American history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to continue sending journalists to tell both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to block Americans from our reporting and analysis with a paywall. We believe that quality journalism should be available to everyone, and paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes a difference.
The NBA returns to China next season, striking a deal to play preseason games there more than five years after the league was effectively banned because of the Commissioner Adam Silver not punishing Daryl Morey for tweets of support for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong.
The deal will be announced Friday, the person who spoke to The Associated Press said on condition of anonymity because neither the NBA nor Chinese officials have spoken publicly about it.
The Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns will play in the Chinese gambling center Macau on October 10, 2025 and again two days later, the person said, adding that there are plans for two more pre-season games in China in 2026.
The teams will play at the Venetian Arena in Macau, which is owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp. — which is also the casino operator there. Sands president and chief operating officer Patrick Dumont became governor of the Dallas Mavericks late last year after his family bought the team.
The Nets are owned by Joe Tsai, the chairman of Chinese tech giant Alibaba.
The NBA will be in that Macau arena this weekend: Hall of Famers Tony Parker, Ray Allen and Tracy McGrady, along with former NBA standouts Stephon Marbury, DeMarcus Cousins and Cuttin Mobley, will headline Saturday’s Hall of Fame Game.
It’s all part of a long series of steps toward some sort of return to normalcy between China and the league. The NBA has, on some level, been welcomed for some time: Miami’s Jimmy Butler, who has a contract with Chinese apparel company Li-Ning, has toured the country and drawn big crowds in each of the last two offseasons, while Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox drew huge crowds when they visited in September.
Then in October, Silver said he thought the league “will bring games back to China at some point.”
The geopolitical rift began in October 2019 when Morey, then general manager of the Houston Rockets and now GM of the Philadelphia 76ers, tweeted support for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. The tweet was quickly deleted, but the fallout lasted for years and Beijing was clearly unhappy that Silver supported Morey’s right to speak out on the issue.
“If it’s a consequence of sticking to our values, we still think it’s critical that we stick to those values,” Silver said at the time.
The timing of the tweet was particularly awkward, given that the Nets and Los Angeles Lakers were in China for two games at the time. The games were played — mostly in silence with fans in attendance, many taping NBA logos to the jerseys they wore — and even without the usual pre- and post-game press conferences.
The NBA has been criticized by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the US for playing and not saying more about China’s human rights record.
In large part because Silver did not sanction Morey for Chinese tastes, no NBA games were shown on CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, for a year after that tweet. The end of the 2020 NBA Finals was shown on CCTV, which has begun showing the games in earnest again in 2022. NBA games were available to Chinese fans on streaming service Tencent, another of the league’s broadcast partners.
The league said the schism cost up to $400 million in lost revenue in the year that followed, and that figure is sure to keep rising. But along the way there were steps towards reconciliation; The NBA legend and Yao Ming went to the US for a memorial service for commissioner emeritus David Stern in January 2020, which was seen at the time as a joint sign that the league and China wanted to mend fences. China then publicly thanked the NBA in February 2020 — when what became the COVID-19 pandemic was in its earliest days — for sending more than $1 million in medical supplies to help fight the coronavirus.
The league has played a preseason game in Macau before, with Orlando beating Cleveland there in 2007. The Magic also played the Chinese all-star team in Macau on that same trip. And in 2008, USA Basketball played exhibition games in Macau before the Beijing Olympics.
“The game of basketball here, the fans respect the game so much,” then-Cavaliers star LeBron James said after playing in Macau in 2007. “It’s great to see that.”
Macau – a former Portuguese colony that was returned to Chinese rule in 1999 – is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal. Beijing has urged the city to diversify its gambling-reliant economy, hoping it can develop tourism and be a bridge for trade between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA