NBA games return to China for the first time from Hong Kong Prodemocratic order

The US National Basketball Association (NBA) will return to China this week for the first time since 2019.

Two pre -season games are scheduled for Friday and Sunday between Brooklyn networks and Phoenix Suns at the Arena at the Venetian Casino and Macau Hotel.

China effectively freeze NBA six years ago when one of the organization’s managers writes in support of protesters Products in Hong Kong, a former British colony that observes a restriction on civil liberties.

The games come after the NBA giant and Chinese technology Alibaba announced a multi -year partnership late last year. The Brooklyn networks are owned by the chairman of the company Joseph Tsai.

This is the first time the NBA attachment is played in Macau – a special administrative region such as Hong Kong, known for its casinos – since 2007.

The NBA has thrown the games as part of the effort to join the growing viewer of American basketball in the country, with Commissioner Adam Silver telling the News Agency AFP that there is a “huge interest in NBA throughout China.”

The analysis of the US sports operator ESPN in 2022 suggests that the value of NBA China, the hand that manages its operations in the country, is estimated at approximately $ 5 billion ($ 3.7 billion).

The popularity of basketball in the East Asian nation jumped when Chinese player Yao Ming was made by Houston missiles in 2002.

The NBA estimated in 2019 that 300 million people in China played sports.

Games can be interpreted as a culmination of a slow but stable reconciliation between NBA and China, against the background of tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade.

China terminated the NBA broadcasts on Chinese television channels and streaming platforms after the NBA refused to apologize or discipline the then Houston Missile manager, Daryl Morey, who published on social media: “Freedom Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”

At that time, the city was consumed by regular protests about the erosion of the rights of freedom of expression and the assembly, which ended with the fact that China passed the Security Act to disagree into disagreement. Beijing maintains that this is necessary to maintain order.

D, Morey retreated after a reaction from Chinese fans, while the NBA said it was “unfortunately” fans in China were upset and admitted that “deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China.”

Since then, NBA games have been gradually returning to Chinese television channels.

Chinese fans expressed their excitement from the upcoming games.

“We were preparing and planning this two months in advance,” Liu Jehe of Xiamen, in front of Reuters in Macau. “It feels extra special because we are longtime NBA fans – we have been watching since 1998, in the era of Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls.”

Mall Zeng, traveling from Hangzhou, told the news agency: “I believe that in the future, as the NBA continues to grow in China, more and more star players will come here to meet us personally.”