NBA matches to be staged in China for first time since 2019
China will host NBA matches for the first time since 2019 this weekend after six years of being frozen out due to a dispute over Hong Kong.
One of the basketball league’s managers stated their support for pro-democracy protestors in Hong Hong back in 2019 and China has since held a hard line on matches being played in the nation.
But on Friday in Macau – a – will host the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns in a pair of pre-season fixtures.
It comes after a multi-year announcement between the NBA and Chinese tech juggernaut Alibaba – the firm’s chairman, Joseph Tsai, owns the Nets.
NBA in China
The two NBA teams will clash at the Venetian Arena in Macau on Friday with the two sides meeting again in the same stadium on Sunday. It will be the first time the special region of China has hosted NBA teams since 2007.
NBA matches in China began in 2004, with 28 pre-season games taking place in the nation since. The American league has also staged games in Abu Dhabi, Melbourne and Canada thus far in 2025, while they’ll head to Mexico City in November, and Berlin and London in January.
London will then host a regular season match in 2026 before Manchester stages one a year later, representing the first time NBA matches will be played in the United Kingdom since 2019.
“We’ve been preparing and planning for this two months in advance,” Lyu Yizhe, a fan from Xiamen, told Reuters in Macau. “It feels extra special because we’re long-time NBA fans – we’ve been watching since 1998, back in the Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls era.”
Added Mole Zeng from Hangzhou: “I believe that in the future, as the NBA continues to grow in China, more and more star players will come here to meet us in person.”