Daryl Morey’s 2019 tweet in support of the Hong Kong protests froze one of the league’s most lucrative international relationships. The Chinese Basketball Association cut ties, and the NBA’s Global Games in China came to a screeching halt. What followed was years of silence, strained relations, and careful diplomacy behind the scenes. But in 2025, the NBA finally found its way back. After nearly six years, the league made its long-awaited return to China, signing a five-year deal to host two preseason games annually at the Venetian Arena in Macau. And if you know Adam Silver, you know he wasn’t going to stop there. The commissioner now has his eyes set on taking the WNBA to China next.
“We have to get through a new collective bargaining agreement with our players,” Silver said in an interview with CNBC. “But once we do, there’s so much interest in women’s basketball here, I think we’d love to bring a WNBA game to Macao or to mainland China.”
(This is a developing news…)