{"id":207138,"date":"2025-10-12T09:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/207138\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T09:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:11:15","slug":"treading-fine-line-nba-money-machine-kicks-into-gear-on-china-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/207138\/","title":{"rendered":"Treading fine line, NBA money machine kicks into gear on China return"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA brought star-studded lineups to Macau this week for the league\u2019s return to China after six years but many of the biggest wins happened off the basketball court, industry insiders and experts told AFP.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Brooklyn Nets\u2019 Noah Clowney #21 (2nd L) shoots to the basket during the NBA pre-season basketball game against the Phoenix Suns, at the Venetian Arena in Macau, on October 10, 2025. Photo: Eduardo Leal\/AFP.<\/p>\n

Thousands of fans cheered Friday as the Phoenix Suns \u2014 led by four-time NBA All-Star Devin Booker \u2014 beat the Brooklyn Nets, with celebrities such as David Beckham, actor Jackie Chan and Alibaba founder Jack Ma in front-row seats.<\/p>\n

It heralded the NBA\u2019s return to China for the first time since being effectively frozen out of the country in 2019 after a team official tweeted support for democracy protests in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Hours after Friday\u2019s pre-season match at a sold-out Venetian Arena, US President Donald Trump announced an additional 100 percent tariff on China, underscoring the volatile backdrop of the NBA\u2019s detente with Beijing.<\/p>\n

Even so, the NBA and star players are rushing back to the post-pandemic Chinese market, with LeBron James and Stephen Curry visiting the country this year to hawk their brands.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing a lot of the athletes would say is that everyone read about James Harden coming to China (in 2023), selling his wine and selling out in like 60 seconds,\u201d said Michael Lin, a VP at sports digital agency Mailman, an IMG company.<\/p>\n

\"USUS President Donald Trump departs the White House via the South Lawn on September 11, 2025. Photo: The White House, via Flickr. <\/p>\n

Booths near the arena showed off the NBA\u2019s Chinese brand partners, including e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, live-video app Kuaishou and dairy giant Mengniu, as well as merchandise aimed at younger consumers.<\/p>\n

David Leiner, president of trading cards for Fanatics Collectibles, said the company recently started selling China-specific NBA card packs in more than 30 cities, adding that the 10 yuan ($1.4) entry price point was \u201ccritical\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it was very important to get the product broadly distributed,\u201d Leiner told AFP.<\/p>\n

Decades of business<\/p>\n

China became a priority for the NBA in the early 2000s in part due to Yao Ming\u2019s superstardom, said Mark Fischer, former managing director of NBA China.<\/p>\n

Fischer said the business entity NBA China was valued at $2.3 billion around the time of its 2008 formation.<\/p>\n

That figure grew to more than $4 billion a decade later, according to NBA deputy commissioner and COO Mark Tatum in a 2018 Forbes interview.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the league signed a deal reportedly worth $1.5 billion with Tencent on exclusive online streaming rights.<\/p>\n

But that was soon overshadowed when Houston Rockets official Daryl Morey went public in support of Hong Kong protesters.<\/p>\n

\"augustA protest in Hong Kong on August 18, 2019. Photo: May James\/HKFP.<\/p>\n

The NBA making its return in Macau showed that Beijing was \u201copening the side door but not the main gates and red carpet just yet\u201d, said Fischer, now an international sports consultant.<\/p>\n

Macau is a special administrative region of China, distinct from the mainland, and famous for its casinos.<\/p>\n

The teams are also taking their chance to claw back missed revenues from the vast China market.<\/p>\n

The Suns hired the marketing team behind American internet celebrity IShowSpeed\u2019s well-received China streaming tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going as far as working with (the Suns) to shoot content around the players eating mooncakes and making sure that the correct terminology around Lunar New Year versus Chinese New Year is used,\u201d said Andrew Spalter, founder and CEO of digital marketing firm East Goes Global.<\/p>\n

The Nets, owned by Alibaba chairman Joseph Tsai, have an in-house Chinese social media team.<\/p>\n

Warning<\/p>\n

Victor Cha, a geopolitics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warned that China still held the \u201cultimate form of power over the NBA\u201d and could leverage its huge market to force firms to self-censor.<\/p>\n

\"MacauThe Ruins of St Paul\u2019s in Macau. Photo: Wikicommons.<\/p>\n

A sports marketer in China who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Morey tweet took just minutes to trigger online outrage and that because of the sheer number of people in and around the NBA it will be \u201cimpossible\u201d to avoid a similar incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how quickly things can spiral out of control,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even about an individual NBA player, it\u2019s anybody associated with the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appearing in Macau on Thursday, Las Vegas Sands president and COO Patrick Dumont tried out Alibaba\u2019s AI technology that purported to translate spoken NBA match commentary from English to Chinese, or vice versa.<\/p>\n

The Dallas Mavericks owner asked if he could say anything he wanted, as opposed to reading out scripted lines shown to him on a screen.<\/p>\n

His host pointed at the text and replied, \u201cTechnically, you can say what you want, but this would be the most optimised.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Macau,\u00a0China<\/p>\n

Type of Story: News Service<\/p>\n

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