The NBA will make its return to China in 2025 for the first time in over five years, as the league’s deputy commissioner revealed new plans for next year’s preseason on Friday.
China To Host 2025 NBA Preseason
It was revealed on Friday morning that the NBA will be making a return to Asia in 2025, with China hosting two preseason games next year.
In an official statement, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said: “It’s my pleasure to announce that the Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns will play two pre-season games at Sands’ Venetian Arena on October 10 and October 12, 2025.
“Our games started being broadcast on CCTV in the mid-1980s, so it’s nearly a 40-year relationship. I think this is such a treat for us to be able to bring NBA games back here to Macau,” Tatum added.
Tatum announced the plans while in Macau on Friday, just hours after signing the multimillion-dollar agreement.
This is culmination of a yearslong process to repair the relationship between the NBA and China following commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s support for freedom of expression after then-Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted an image that supported protests in Hong Kong in 2019. https://t.co/QhUi6pmM0s
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 6, 2024
There was speculation over whether or not the league would ever make its return to China, with relations turning frosty after a controversial incident in 2019.
The then Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey took to Twitter to voice his contentious opinion, which supported pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong that were going on at the time.
As a result of Morey’s tweet, China decided to stop allowing NBA games to be played within the country, even after the GM apologised for causing any offence.
League executives did defend Morey’s right to freedom of speech but relations turned frosty fast and for the last five years there has been no signs of going back to Asia for any games.
The 2025 preseason won’t be the only NBA games held in Macau, as the deal is reportedly a five-year contract with China hosting two games every year until 2029.
In the first year back in China after five years away, the Phoenix Suns will face the Brooklyn Nets in two preseason games at the Venetian Arena in Macau.
