Will NBA games return to China? What did Adam Silver have to say?

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that he believes the American basketball league will eventually resume organizing games in China.

“I think we will bring back games to China at some point. We had a well-known incident there pre-pandemic with a tweet and China’s government took us off the air for a period of time. We accepted that. We stood by our values” Silver said during a sports management conference at Columbia University, this week.

Tweet caused tension between NBA and Chinese officials

The NBA has not hosted games in China since 2019 following comments by then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. Morey was forced to explain himself after publishing a post on social media, with a strong political message: “Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong.” That did not go down well at all with the authorities and Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reacted by exclaiming that they would no longer broadcast Rockets games.

It also created tension between the American league and the Asian country. China banned live broadcasts of NBA games for almost three years before finally letting the league back on television in 2022.

“The Chinese government has sidelined us for a period of time. We accept that. We continue to stand by our values. Everyone in our League has the right to speak out on political issues,” Silver said, according to sources. “We’re happy to deal directly with the issues. Nothing these days is completely clean. We came to the decision collectively as a league that by expanding our game internationally ... it’s part of our mission to create health and wellness around the sport of basketball

Tensions with China that arose after the Morey considerations led to significant financial losses for the NBA in broadcasting and licensing rights with some estimates citing figures of up to $400 million.