It sounds like the NBA is back in the China business.
At least, so says one of the men in the best position to know — Nets owner Joe Tsai, who has been influential in the NBA’s relationship with China over the years.
Tsai — who was born in Taiwan and is the co-founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba — said the NBA is “in a very good place” with China.
That’s four years after the league lost its biggest fan base — even larger than the U.S. — and hundreds of millions of dollars over possibly the costliest tweet in history by then-Rockets general manager Daryl Morey.
But now Tsai — interviewed by CNBC’s Emily Tan at the GBA International Sports Business Summit in Macau on Friday — said the league would “love” to resume playing games in China and Macau.
“I think the NBA is in a very good place with respect to its relationship with China,” Tsai said, according to Reuters. “China is actually the NBA’s biggest fan base. So what happened before, I think it’s water under the bridge.”
Tsai would know. The tech billionaire has been heavily involved in the situation from Day 1.
His Nets were the most recent NBA team to play in China in 2019.
They were set to play the Lakers in Shanghai and Shenzhen when Morey tweeted a meme in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
Beijing was incensed and pulled the NBA off state-sponsored CCTV for nearly two years.
All the league personnel were essentially muzzled during the entire international incident while the Nets and Lakers were in China, with The Post getting the only on-record comments, coming from Tsai.
China is home to 300 million NBA fans, and commissioner Adam Silver estimated in 2021 that the tiff had cost the league $400 million that year.
But there could be a thaw — and even a return.
“I think just having the fans have real, in-person sort of interaction with the stars,” Tsai said. “I think that’s going to be important.”
Credit: Source link
