CNN
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The National Basketball Association (NBA) is taking its first step back into the vast Chinese market with two preseason games scheduled to take place in Macau next October, five years after the league was effectively banned from China.

The Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns will play preseason games at the Venetian Arena next year on October 10 and 12, while an NBA flagship store will also open in Macau.

“Bringing the preseason games to Macau will showcase the excitement of the NBA to fans in one of the world’s emerging sports hubs,” NBA deputy commissioner and COO Mark Tatum said in a press release.

“The Nets and Suns are an exciting mix of established and emerging stars, and we look forward to engaging fans, aspiring players and the local community in Macau through these games and a variety of interactive events, youth development programs and social initiatives to include impact. ”

NBA teams have large fan bases in China, where basketball is extremely popular. The league hasn’t played a game in the country since 2019, when a tweet from then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong sparked a political firestorm.

At the time, NBA commissioner Adam Silver refused to punish or censor Morey – the current basketball president of the Philadelphia 76ers – which sparked the ire of Beijing and led to the central Chinese broadcaster’s sports network to stop broadcasting the league’s games for a year set.

Hong Kong was rocked by pro-democracy protests in 2019, at times bringing several hundred thousand people onto the streets to push for democracy in the city. Like Macau, Hong Kong is considered a special administrative region of China, which is partly different from the mainland.

Beijing has repeatedly accused Western democratic forces of fueling popular protests in Hong Kong and criticized any support for the movement, which died out in 2020 when the capital imposed a sweeping national security law on the city.

Silver said two years ago that the NBA had lost “hundreds of millions of dollars” in revenue due to its dispute with China, with which the league had a longstanding relationship. According to Reuters, 17 NBA teams played 28 games in China between 2004 and 2019.

However, tensions between the league and the country now appear to have subsided, with a legends game featuring six former NBA stars taking place in Macau on Saturday.

“We always welcome the opportunity to compete on the global stage and we are grateful to be participating in the 2025 NBA China Games,” said Sean Marks, general manager of the Brooklyn Nets.

“The Brooklyn Nets have an incredible fan base around the globe and we can’t wait to bring our love of the game directly to our fans while giving our players and coaches the opportunity to immerse themselves in another culture.”

Phoenix Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein, meanwhile, added that playing in Macau is part of the team’s vision to “expose the Suns to a global audience and delight fans around the world.”