The NBA wants yuans.
The National Basketball Association took a step in getting back to its marketing plan to grow its business in China by playing a preseason game in Macau. Macau is part of China but it’s not on the mainland as it is a peninsula which borders the mainland and there are two islands. Macau was part of Portugal until 1999. Macau is a special administrative region of China, which maintains separate governing and economic systems from those of mainland China under the principle of “one country, two systems”. China takes care of Macau’s foreign policy and defense.
China threw the NBA and its product out in 2019 after then Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey, in a tweet, expressed his support of pro-democracy protests that took Hong Kong by storm in 2019. China’s government was furious with the tweet and shut the door on the NBA after the league supported Morey’s right to express his opinion. That Morey tweet cost the NBA Hundreds of millions of dollars. China took NBA games off of China’s broadcast channels. NBA commissioner Adam Silver at that time said Chinese officials wanted Morey fired, a claim denied by the Chinese foreign ministry. In 2024, the NBA signed a multimillion-dollar deal to bring preseason games back to Macau. But Silver would like to get back onto the mainland as quickly as possible and have preseason games in the country. There is a treasure chest of money to be made there. But Silver also knows there is a problem with geo-politics and American tariffs on products made in China and political tensions. The NBA has a deal with the Chinese Basketball Association to help support the development of elite Chinese players, coaches and referees. Silver wants WNBA games in China too. But China holds all the cards in its relationship with the NBA.
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