NBA TO RETURN TO CHINA

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NBA Commissioner Adam Silver believes the league will eventually return to China, five years after a controversy over the Hong Kong democracy protests led to a backlash in the Chinese market.

In 2019, then-Hous­ton Rock­ets Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Daryl Morey post­ed a pro-Hong Kong mes­sage on social media, spark­ing out­rage in Chi­na. As a result, Chi­na stopped broad­cast­ing NBA games, and cor­po­rate spon­sors pulled out, caus­ing sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial loss­es for the league.

Despite this, Sil­ver reit­er­at­ed that the NBA stands by its val­ues, stat­ing, “Any­body in our league has the right to speak out on polit­i­cal mat­ters.” Chi­nese state broad­cast­er CCTV resumed air­ing NBA games in 2022, and ten­sions appeared to ease when All-Star Jim­my But­ler toured Chi­na dur­ing the sum­mer of 2023.

While the NBA looks to expand glob­al­ly, host­ing pre­sea­son games in Abu Dhabi and reg­u­lar-sea­son games in Mex­i­co City and Paris, it hasn’t escaped con­tro­ver­sy. Many ques­tion the league’s pres­ence in coun­tries like Abu Dhabi, with his­to­ries of human rights vio­la­tions. Mean­while, Enes Kan­ter Freedom’s out­spo­ken crit­i­cism of Iran’s human rights abus­es effec­tive­ly end­ed his NBA career.