About five years after a tweet upended the NBA’s relationship with China, the league is finally going back.
The NBA announced the Nets and Suns will play two preseason games in October 2025 in Macao as part of a new multiyear collaboration to bring NBA games back to China for the first time since 2019.
The games will be played in Macao at the Venetian Arena, which is part of Las Vegas Sands Casinos, owned by the Adelson family, who also owns the Dallas Mavericks. It’s worth noting Macao is not China’s mainland, and is a specially administered Chinese region with a population of roughly 700,000. It has its own currency and casinos, which are prohibited in mainland China.
Given the location and the NBA’s Adelson connection, the 2025 games look like an experiment in basketball diplomacy, and one that might lead to the NBA playing games in China’s biggest cities down the road.
“Sands is honored to bring The NBA China Games to Macao so that the most elite level of basketball can be experienced directly by the fans who are so passionate about it,” Mavericks governor and Las Vegas Sands president Patrick Dumont said in the NBA’s release. “We look forward to welcoming the NBA to Macao next October.”
In 2019, China was rocked by anti-government protests in Hong Kong over a bill that would amend extradition laws. The pro-democracy protests renewed attention on the country’s human rights issues with its government. Then-Rockets GM Daryl Morey, who now runs the Sixers’ front office, tweeted his support for the protesters six days before the Nets and Lakers were set to play two preseason games in Shanghai. “Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong,” Morey’s tweet said. NBA commissioner Adam Silver defended Morey’s right to free speech, which wound up costing the NBA nine figures.
Nets owner Joe Tsai, a Chinese businessman who cofounded e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, responded to Morey’s tweet, which was later deleted, with an open letter to NBA fans on his Facebook page. Tsai admonished Morey and said his comments were taken very negatively in China.
“The one thing that is terribly misunderstood, and often ignored, by the western press and those critical of China is that 1.4 billion Chinese citizens stand united when it comes to the territorial integrity of China and the country’s sovereignty over her homeland,” Tsai said in his letter. “This issue is non-negotiable.”
The NBA had a strong business relationship in China, boosted by the Rockets’ draft of Yao Ming in 2002. Sneaker sales are strong, especially for stars such as Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, who have done promotional tours in Asia.
The 7-foot-6 Chinese center helped make basketball phenomenally popular in China during his Hall of Fame career. Ming was president of the Chinese Basketball Association at the time of Morey’s tweet and NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Ming was “extremely hot,” over it and disagreed with Morey on the matter.
LeBron James, whose Nike shoes are popular in China, called out Morey for his comments and said he “wasn’t educated” when he tweeted his comments, while coaches known to be more openly political such as Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich danced around questions. In 2022, an ESPN story revealed people close to Morey thought Tsai was trying to get the NBA to fire him shortly after his tweet took off.
China pulled all NBA games off its airwaves and merchandise out of stores in light of Silver’s stance and the yearly preseason games ceased. Chinese sponsors severed ties with the NBA, and lawmakers from both parties made their views on the incident known. Then-President Donald Trump said the NBA had to “work out their own situation” with the country.
The Trump presidential transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the NBA returning to China.
China returned NBA games to its airwaves in 2022. Silver said the severed relationship cost the league “hundreds of millions” in revenue. The loss of the China market forced the NBA to look elsewhere for global expansion opportunities, and in the past three years it has dipped its toes in the Middle East, playing preseason games in Abu Dhabi.
Tsai hinted at a possible NBA return to China in February when he spoke at a sports convention in Hong Kong. “I think the NBA is in a very good place with respect to its relationship with China,” said Tsai. “China is actually the NBA’s biggest fan base. So what happened before, I think it’s water under the bridge.”
He added the NBA would “love” to bring games back to Macao.
Silver added to Tsai’s speculation in October, when he said NBA games would return to China “at some point” while acknowledging the situation that got them there.
“We had a well-known incident there pre-pandemic with a tweet and China’s government took us off the air for a period of time,” Silver said. “We accepted that. We stood by our values.”
