The NBA returns to China after six years

I’m in Macau, the gaming capital of the world. I’ve been here for the NBA’s return to China for six years, there haven’t been any NBA games here. looking at these large banners displayed on the buildings. It reminds me of my return here in 2019. The players were sitting in their hotel and they could see workers tearing up these same types of banners, peeling their faces off the building. A few days earlier, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey sent a tweet in support of protesters in Hong Kong. Well, that really upset the Chinese government. The NBA supported him. We make no apologies for Daryl for exercising his freedom of speech. And then chaos enveloped. All this week. The sponsors withdrew. And many players worried whether they would even be allowed to return home if things got worse. It was so surreal. they lost about $400 million. From this situation alone, the Chinese market is huge for the NBA. There are a lot of basketball fans here…. and the league has worked to cultivate them for decades. And so coming here to Macau and playing a game in China again is a very big deal for the league. when you ask anyone in the league, how did those games go? The name they mentioned is Patrick Dumont. He is a senior executive at Sands Casino. And owner of the Dallas Mavericks. in 2021, the Chinese government was renegotiating what are called concessions with the casinos here in Macau. In these concession agreements, the government required casinos to spend a certain amount on non-gaming activities, such as entertainment or sports. And Sands had this arena at the Venetian, so Dumont saw bringing the NBA here as an opportunity to satisfy that requirement. One of the other main players here was Joe Sy, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets. Joe Tsai is the chairman of Alibaba Group, a Chinese technology giant. he has many deep ties to the Chinese government, networks, and has spent a lot of time in recent years meeting with Chinese officials and organizing events celebrating Chinese culture. they spoke to Chinese media and said: “This market is so important to us. We care about this market more than any other team in the NBA. They even launched a reality TV show. This is a dance team competition to choose the dancers for their matches here in Macau. Sound off: “The Brooklyn Nets will find the best dancers in China.” The stakes are enormous for these teams, because. The league saw what happened when something went wrong and they lost that market, however briefly. there is a feeling that everything must be going well and that this is a great opportunity to get back something they lost.