Adam Silver: Possibility of NBA Resuming Games in China
According to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, his league may once again hold games in China despite facing significant financial losses and strained relations with the country five years ago.
In 2019, when the Houston Rockets' then-general manager Daryl Morey expressed support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, China responded by removing some preseason games from their highly populated and basketball-loving market. This resulted in an 18-month blackout of the NBA on China's state broadcaster CCTV, which ended in March 2022.
Speaking at the Columbia University Sports Management Conference in New York, Silver stated, "I believe we will resume games in China at some point. China's government may have taken us off the air for a period of time, but we stood by our values. Anyone in our league has the right to voice their opinions on political matters."
The NBA's most recent games in China were in October 2019, when the Brooklyn Nets faced off against the Los Angeles Lakers in two preseason matches. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBA took a brief hiatus from their "NBA Global Games" series, but later resumed with preseason games in Saitama, Japan and Abu Dhabi, as well as regular-season games in Mexico City and Paris.
