NBA Reopens Doors in China—and Eyes the WNBA Next

After a six-year absence, the NBA returned to China over the weekend, sparking a new beginning for the league and one of its largest international markets.

The Suns and Nets played two games on Friday and Sunday, drawing a total of 22,634 fans for two sellouts at The Venetian Arena in Macao. The league is set to play eight more games over the next four years in Macao, which is a special administrative region of China.

Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont told the South China Morning Post that his team will face the Rockets next year. Dumont is the president and COO of Las Vegas Sands, which owns The Venetian Macao.

However, there may also be games in mainland China over that same period.

Before tip-off of the NBA China games Friday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced a new “transformational partnership” with the Chinese Basketball League (CBA). The announcement focuses on player development in China, including opportunities for China’s men’s and women’s national teams to train in the U.S. and compete in the NBA Summer League and WNBA preseason.

He also said that there could be additional games in “other parts of China concurrent with our Macao arrangement.” The Trail Blazers are an obvious candidate for a China-based game after the team drafted Hansen Yang with the No. 16 pick in June. The Celtics may also be a candidate following their recent $6.1 billion sale to a consortium led by William Chisholm.

That group included Mario Ho Yau-kwan, the son of the late Macao businessman Stanley Ho Hung-sun.

The NBA had not played games since October 2019, about a week after then-Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted in support of anti-government protestors in Hong Kong. The backlash in China led to the removal of games on TV, particularly of Houston, one of the most popular franchises in the country following Yao Ming’s eight seasons with the team.

Is the WNBA Next?

Women’s basketball is also a focus of the NBA and CBA partnership, and Silver said WNBA games could also be held in China down the line. He admitted, however, that the league will first need to come to terms on a different CBA—the collective bargaining agreement. 

“We have to get through a new collective bargaining agreement with our players. But once we do, there’s so much interest in women’s basketball here, I think we’d love to bring a WNBA game to Macao or to mainland China,” Silver said.

There have been several Chinese WNBA players in recent years, including former New York Liberty center Han Xu and Washington Mystics wing Li Meng. Dallas Wings center Li Yueru is the lone active player.