{"id":55957,"date":"2025-10-18T20:58:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T17:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=55957"},"modified":"2025-10-18T20:58:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T17:58:29","slug":"nba-returns-to-china-after-six-year-absence-following-pro-democracy-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/18\/nba-returns-to-china-after-six-year-absence-following-pro-democracy-fallout\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA returns to China after six-year absence following pro-democracy fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns met in a sold-out preseason game in Macau on Friday as fans cheered the NBA\u2019s return to China after a six-year absence prompted by a pro-democracy tweet.<\/p>\n<p>The first of two matches in Macau capped the NBA\u2019s bid to mend fences with China, a lucrative market where an estimated 125 million people play basketball.<br \/>\n\u201cThe atmosphere is amazing. I\u2019ve been a Suns fan for a long time,\u201d said David Jin, 26, who took a day trip from the nearby Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe NBA should come to mainland China more often. If it\u2019s on my doorstep, I\u2019ll show up to give my support,\u201d Jin said, adding he spent about 5,000 yuan ($700) for tickets and travel.<\/p>\n<p>Fans in the packed Venetian Arena gave four-time NBA All-Star Devin Booker a roaring reception and also particularly looked forward to seeing China\u2019s 22-year-old debutant Nets forward Zeng Fanbo.<br \/>\nNBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Thursday that \u201cthere\u2019s tremendous interest in the NBA throughout China.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns met in a sold-out preseason game in Macau on Friday as fans cheered the NBA\u2019s return to China after a six-year absence prompted by a pro-democracy tweet. The first of two matches in Macau capped the NBA\u2019s bid to mend fences with China, a lucrative market where an &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55959,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55957\/revisions\/55959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}