Roughly 5 years after the NBA pulled out of most of it’s overseas events in China following political backlash, NBA commissioner Adam Silver believes that the league could soon return to the country in its efforts to expand the league’s brand.
“I think we will bring games back to China at some point,” Silver said Thursday in New York. “China’s government took us off the air for a period of time. We accepted that. We stood by our values. … Anybody in our league has the right to speak out on political matters.”
Back in 2019, then-Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey posted a message on social media in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong. That caused a firestorm of political opinions across the Pacific which led to increased tensions between the league and Chinese officials.
Since then, the NBA has largely paused most of their Chinese marketing efforts, though the sport remained popular amongst sports enthusiasts. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV ended an 18-month blackout of the league in March 2022, resulting in several stars, including Jimmy Butler, resuming tours across the country over the past few offseasons.
While there remains a long way to go before the NBA becomes a mainstay on the Chinese controlled national broadcasts, Thursdays developments at least represented a positive step forward between both parties.
Photo: Ash Carter. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.