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Mike Chan

This year’s NBA China Games concluded on Sunday night, but close-season developments on and off the court have added to the intrigue over which teams could make a visit in the coming seasons.
After the Brooklyn Nets beat the Phoenix Suns 111-109 in Macau on Sunday to split their two-game pre-season series, the Post revealed the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets would face off in another mouthwatering clash at The Venetian Arena in 12 months.
A combined attendance of 22,634 from two matches organisers described as sold out saw the return of NBA action to China for the first time in six years.
“I think we both missed each other. China has missed the NBA,” five-time All-Star Tim Hardaway said. “I’m very happy we’re back, because the relationship [with China] is very important to the NBA.”
With eight more matches still to be staged in the casino city over the next four years, the team line-up beyond 2026 remains a hot topic.

Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont, who is president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands – which runs The Venetian in Macau – had shown interest in bringing the NBA to this part of the world even before he acquired the Western Conference team in 2023, said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
“I feel like Macau chose us; [the Sands] have very strong interest in the league,” the NBA chief said at the media round table last Friday. “Dumont said [bringing NBA basketball to Macau] serves many purposes in addition to having these terrific games and players here.
“It brings global attention … which helps increase tourism for Macau.”
Apart from the already announced Texan blockbuster next year, recent off-season developments have thrown more teams into the mix.
In August, a consortium that included Mario Ho Yau-kwan, youngest son of the late Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun, acquired the Boston Celtics after a US$6.1 billion (HK$47.6 billion) bid led by American private equity executive William Chisholm.
“Now that the Boston Celtics are partly owned by Mario Ho, and Yang Hansen has been selected by the Portland Trail Blazers, you would imagine these teams would love to be in this part of the region and explore their Chinese markets,” said a source who has been involved in the NBA China Games for almost a decade.
Another visit for the Nets – owned by Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai, also chairman of the South China Morning Post – could not be written off either, the source said.
Before this year, of the 13 occasions NBA pre-season games were held in the country, the teams with the most visits have been the Nets, the Rockets, the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings, with six each.

While the next eight games in the current deal between the NBA and Sands China are expected to remain on the peninsula, Silver also said last week – on the same day he hailed a “transformational partnership” with the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) – that “games can take place in other parts of China, concurrent with our Macau arrangement”.
However, the Post has been told that, with the rise of other mainland cities in recent years, the host city pattern of “Beijing-Shanghai-Guangzhou-Shenzhen” could change.
Of the previous 25 NBA China Games, 24 were held in those four cities, the exception being Macau in 2007.
Chengdu, which hosted an NBA All-Star Celebrity Game a fortnight ago and the World University Games in 2021, and Hangzhou, which will host another celebrity game on Saturday and which hosted the 2023 Asian Games, were “capable”, the source said.
Chongqing could be in the mix too, after Warriors superstar Stephen Curry visited the southwestern Chinese municipality in August for his Curry Brand China Tour.


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NBA China Games: Celtics, Trail Blazers thrown into mix of teams coming in next few years

The Portland Trail Blazers could be among the teams interested in playing in the NBA China Games now they have China’s Yang Hansen (left) on their books. Photo: AP

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Phoenix Suns’ Khaman Maluach (left) jostling with Brooklyn Nets’ Nic Claxton under the net in their match at the The Venetian Arena, Macau. Photo: Karma Lo

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Sport

Basketball

China

With Macau to host eight more matches over the next four years, the team line-up beyond next year’s fixture remains a hot topic


With Macau to host eight more matches over the next four years, the team line-up beyond next year’s fixture remains a hot topic.


NBA China Games: Celtics, Trail Blazers thrown into mix of teams coming in next few years

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With Macau to host eight more matches over the next four years, the team line-up beyond next year’s fixture remains a hot topic

With Macau to host eight more matches over the next four years, the team line-up beyond next year’s fixture remains a hot topic