![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-10-10T130351Z_1418431703_UP1ELAA10ABKF_RTRMADP_3_BASKETBALL-NBA-CHINA-1760102639.jpg\")
Former footballer, Inter Miami CF co-owner and Salford City co-owner David Beckham was among those in attendance for the match in Macau [Tyrone Siu\/Reuters]<\/p>\nRelations between the NBA and China had soured after a pro-democracy tweet was liked by a team official in 2019.<\/p>\n
Published On 10 Oct 202510 Oct 2025<\/p>\n
Click here to share on social media<\/p>\n
share2<\/p>\n
The Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns met in a sold-out preseason game in Macau on Friday as fans cheered the NBA\u2019s return to China after a six-year absence prompted by a pro-democracy tweet.<\/p>\n
The first of two matches in Macau capped the NBA\u2019s bid to mend fences with China, a lucrative market where an estimated 125 million people play basketball.<\/p>\n
Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
\u201cThe atmosphere is amazing. I\u2019ve been a Suns fan for a long time,\u201d said David Jin, 26, who took a day trip from the nearby Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NBA should come to mainland China more often. If it\u2019s on my doorstep, I\u2019ll show up to give my support,\u201d Jin said, adding he spent about 5,000 yuan ($700) for tickets and travel.<\/p>\n
Fans in the packed Venetian Arena gave four-time NBA All-Star Devin Booker a roaring reception and also particularly looked forward to seeing China\u2019s 22-year-old debutant Nets forward Zeng Fanbo.<\/p>\n
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Thursday that \u201cthere\u2019s tremendous interest in the NBA throughout China.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building on the charm offensive, Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez said the China trip was in part an opportunity visit and to learn about a new culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are told that we get support from China, a lot of fans watching our games. But the reality is you don\u2019t know until you come here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Also speaking before the game, Suns head coach Jordan Ott said many of his players were travelling to China for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust that excitement when they walk out tonight \u2013 we know it\u2019s a packed house \u2013 would be a really cool experience for all of us to remember,\u201d Ott said.<\/p>\n
Former footballer, Inter Miami CF co-owner and Salford City co-owner David Beckham was among those in attendance for the match in Macau [Tyrone Siu\/Reuters]<\/p>\n
The Chinese Basketball Association announced a strategic partnership with the NBA on Friday, which includes providing opportunities for Chinese teams to take part in the NBA Summer League and WNBA preseason games in the United States, according to state media.<\/p>\n
The NBA\u2019s popularity in China took off during the 2000s with the Yao Ming craze, but the relationship soured markedly after a team official tweeted his support for the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
The NBA was frozen out of China, and this was the league taking its tentative first steps back in.<\/p>\n
Qin Junhong, a 19-year-old studying in Macau, said he remembered little about the dispute and was just \u201cexcited\u201d to attend the game with his friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were so many people rushing for tickets,\u201d Qin told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s game is part of a multimillion-dollar deal to stage NBA preseason matches at the Venetian Arena, part of the Las Vegas Sands conglomerate controlled by the Adelson family, who are the majority ownership group in the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n
Macau, the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, is a special administrative region of China close to Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
Experts say that playing the first NBA games since 2019 in Macau was something of a \u201csoft landing\u201d, rather than playing in mainland China.<\/p>\n
Before the game, crowds took selfies at NBA-themed booths and shops in a convention hall, with large signs showing the logos of the league\u2019s Chinese brand partners.<\/p>\n
The Venetian Arena sits at the heart of Macau\u2019s upscale hotel-casinos district known as the Cotai Strip, home to a replica Big Ben and Eiffel Tower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Relations between the NBA and China had soured after a pro-democracy tweet was liked by a team official…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[77,64,63,726,512,590,44,588,85,1055,6075],"class_list":{"0":"post-203162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-china","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}