NBA returns to China for the first time in 6 years

I'm in Macau, the gambling capital of the world. For the past six years, I have been coming here for the NBA's return to China, but no NBA games are held here. While looking at the large banner hanging on the building. I remember coming back here in 2019. The players were sitting in the hotel and workers could be seen tearing down the same type of banners and peeling faces off the building. A few days ago, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey sent out a tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters. Well, this made the Chinese government very angry. The NBA supported him. We are not apologizing to Darryl for exercising his freedom of expression. And chaos enveloped. All that week. Sponsor withdrew. And many players were worried about whether they would even be allowed to go home if things got worse. It was so surreal. They lost about $400 million. From that one perspective, the Chinese market is huge for the NBA. There are a lot of basketball fans here… And the league has been working to develop them for decades. So to come here to Macau and play in China again is a huge deal for the league. When you ask league officials how these games came about, the name they mention is Patrick Dumont. He is a top executive at Sands Casino. And the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. In 2021, the Chinese government was renegotiating so-called concessions with casinos here in Macau. In these concession agreements, the government required casinos to spend a certain amount of money on non-gaming activities, such as sports and other entertainment. And since the Suns had this arena at the Venetian, Dumont saw an opportunity to bring the NBA here to meet that requirement. One of the other key players here was Brooklyn Nets owner Joe See. Joe Tsai is the chairman of Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group. He has deep ties to the Chinese government and the internet world, and has spent much of his time in recent years meeting with Chinese government officials and attending events celebrating Chinese culture. They told Chinese media that this market is very important to us. We value this market more than any other NBA team. They even launched a reality show. It's a dance team contest to choose dancers to compete in the game here in Macau Cheer up: “Brooklyn Nets will find best dancer in China'' Because there's a huge amount at stake for these teams. The league looked at what happens when something goes wrong and you lose this market, even temporarily. There's a sense that this has to work, and that this is a huge opportunity to regain what they lost.