The NBA returns to the lucrative China market this week with two pre-season games following a six-year absence after a team official tweeted his support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
The Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns will play sell-out games on Friday and Sunday in Macau, a special administrative region of China close to Hong Kong.
China, the world’s second-biggest economy, effectively cut ties with the league in 2019 after NBA executives stood behind then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey.
About 125 million people play basketball in China, according to official statistics, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said the league lost