NBA Basketball Returns to Chinese Television After a Long Time

It wasn’t just the response to Morey that invited cheaters. ESPN in 2020 widespread child abuse A spokesperson for the NBA A league recently said that at basketball academies in Chinese government facilities, the league is no longer affiliated with these academies.

Broadcasting NBA games on Chinese television generates hundreds of millions of dollars a year revenue stream for the league. The league’s relationship with China has come under more scrutiny in recent months as Enes Kanter Freedom, an NBA center with the Boston Celtics. criticized For the Chinese government and the league’s business interests in the country. Freedom was traded by the Celtics to the Rockets, which cut him in February.

Kristen Looney, an assistant professor of Chinese politics at Georgetown, said in an interview that the Chinese government’s decision may have been the result of sufficient time or a larger geopolitical calculation.

“It could mean that it’s been enough time for things to blow up somehow,” Looney said. “From a macro perspective, it may mean that China is trying to signal that it still wants to maintain good economic relations with the United States, despite differences in opinion on the Russia-Ukraine crisis. It is possible for China to fear that its close relationship with Russia will have ripple effects on its economic relations with the rest of the Western world, which sided with the United States and Ukraine.”

The NBA has been targeting China and its 1.4 billion population for roughly half a century. China currently has more fans in the league than the United States, a country of 330 million. Before the pandemic, the NBA’s top stars would routinely travel to the country between seasons to promote their sneakers. Since 2004, the NBA has played dozens of games there.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has steadfastly maintained the NBA’s position in China despite the critics. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Silver said he believes the league has been unfairly criticized, given how many companies in the United States do business with China.

“Almost every American uses products made in China,” Silver said. “And in most cases, these are the products we rely on the most. Our computers, our phones, our clothes. Our shoes, our children’s toys. The question then arises: Why is the NBA now being chosen as the only company that should boycott China?”