{"id":331151,"date":"2025-10-09T15:43:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T15:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/331151\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T15:43:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T15:43:18","slug":"nba-bullish-on-regaining-presence-in-china-with-brooklyn-nets-phoenix-suns-preseason-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/331151\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA bullish on regaining presence in China with Brooklyn Nets-Phoenix Suns preseason game"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA is \u201cmaking a big bet on reopening the huge China market\u201d and are \u201cwagering that the Nets are the best team<\/a> to help rebuild those burnt billion-dollar bridges\u201d as they prepare for a pair of preseason games against the Suns<\/a>, according to Brian Lewis of the N.Y. POST. It is \u201chard to imagine a better candidate,\u201d with Nets owner Joe Tsai \u201cone of the most successful businessmen<\/a>\u201d in China, F Zeng Fanbo one of the country\u2019s top young prospects and the Nets \u201cone of the most popular teams\u201d in the Asian country. According to Mailman, a company that tracks such things, the Nets are the \u201cthird-most popular team\u201d in China. The NBA\u2019s contract with the Chinese multimedia company Tencent has also been renewed. And some NBA players went to China in recent months with various sponsors. The Nets are set to play tomorrow and Sunday against the Suns at the Venetian Arena, which is owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Tsai \u201csees a value in building bridges rather than barriers\u201d (N.Y. POST, 10\/6<\/a>). Mavericks owner and Sands President and COO Patrick Dumont said that there will \u201cbe more preseason games in China next year and in years to come.\u201d Dumont: \u201cWe\u2019ve created a lot of fan experiences here, and the goal is to really make something special where the fans of the NBA in Asia and China can really get a true taste of what the NBA has to offer\u201d (CNBC Sport, 10\/9<\/a>).<\/p>\n

TUMULTUOUS TIME: The AP\u2019s Tim Reynolds wrote the \u201cgames come at a turbulent time.\u201d There is\u202f\u201ctrade friction\u201d\u202fbetween the U.S. and China, with both sides \u201cthreatening sky-high tariffs on the others\u2019 exports.\u201d And the NBA has \u201clong heard criticisms from lawmakers — on both sides of the aisle — about not taking a stronger public stance about China\u2019s human rights record\u201d (AP, 10\/8<\/a>).<\/p>\n

TRIP PLANNING: In Phoenix, Duane Rankin noted the 7,500-mile flight to China and weeklong stay is a \u201cseven-figure expense shared by the NBA and participating teams.\u201d The NBA pays for the chartered flight, ground transportation, hotels, meals and practice facility of the teams while the teams finance any additional travel. The Suns will have representatives taking commercial flights to China on different days. The planning for a \u201ctrip of this magnitude begins more than a year in advance as teams are chosen that far out.\u201d The NBA contacts all 30 teams to gauge their interests. The planning shifts to \u201cmapping out the activities once the teams are chosen.\u201d More than 120 Player 15 Group team members (players, coaches, basketball operations, executives, business leaders, live presentation, stat crew) \u201cwill make the trip between private charter and commercial flights.\u201d Suns corporate partners and guests \u201care going as well\u201d (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 10\/5<\/a>).<\/p>\n

FOR THE KIDS: The Nets will \u201chost a series of youth clinics across Hong Kong and Macau as part of the return of the NBA to China this week.\u201d As part of the team\u2019s commitment to growing the game globally and supporting local communities, the Nets also said that they would \u201csupport the revitalisation of basketball courts in Hong Kong.\u201d The initiative will be funded by BSE as \u201cpart of its ongoing corporate social responsibility efforts to invest in the well-being of the communities it serves\u201d (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 10\/8<\/a>).<\/p>\n

GROWING PARTNERSHIP: REUTERS\u2019 Joyce Zhou reports the NBA has signed a multiyear partnership with Chinese technology giant Alibaba. The announcement by Alibaba Group said that it would \u201cprovide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services with the NBA and enhance fan experiences on the NBA app in China.\u201d They added that Alibaba Cloud \u201cwill be the official cloud computing and AI partner of NBA China\u201d (REUTERS, 10\/9<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA is \u201cmaking a big bet on reopening the huge China market\u201d and are \u201cwagering that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,4153,6,671],"class_list":{"0":"post-331151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-international","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115344979262724815","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}