The NBA returns to China for the first time since 2019 with two games between the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns for Macau in October.
A relationship with China that turned cold in 2019 over a chief executive’s tweet appears to be thawing with an announcement expected Friday.
On Thursday, sources told ESPN about the plans to return to the Asian country, which was subsequently reported Shams Charania and Brian Windhorst.
The Nets and the Suns will play at Macau’s Venetian Arena on October 10 and 12, 2025, marking the first games since 17 NBA teams played 28 preseason games in China from 2004 to 2019.
Basketball is extremely popular in China and the market was worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the NBA. However, a rift emerged when then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for the anti-government protests in Hong Kong in October 2019.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver supported personal freedom of speech and did not punish Morey, the current general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Phoenix Suns and Brooklyn Nets are expected to play two games in China this coming preseason
A pro-Hong Kong activist holds a photo depicting LeBron James as Chinese Communist Revolutionary Chairman Mao Zedong before the Los Angeles Lakers’ season-opening game against the LA Clippers, outside Staples Center, on October 22, 2019
Daryl Morey tweeted his support for the anti-government protests in Hong Kong in October 2019
In response, lucrative sponsorships were ended and league matches were no longer shown on CCTV, China’s state-sponsored broadcaster, for a year after Morey’s tweet. Silver estimated that the NBA lost $400 million that year in 2021 because of the dysfunctional relationship.
However, NBA games appeared regularly on CCTV in 2022 and became available on a streaming service.
NBA players, including stars Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and De’Aaron Fox of the Sacramento Kings, have appeared in China. Macau will host a celebrity basketball match featuring former NBA standouts on Saturday.
The Venetian Arena is owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp., which operates a casino there. Macau is the only place in China where legal casino gambling is possible. Dallas Mavericks Governor Patrick Dumont is the president and CEO of Las Vegas Sands.
Joe Tsai, the co-founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, owns the Nets.
The competition returns to the Venetian Arena, formerly Cotai Arena, after two games in 2007 when the Orlando Magic faced the Chinese National Men’s Team and the Cleveland Cavaliers.