Nets take lead in rebuilding NBA-China ties as Macao preseason signals thaw

The Brooklyn Nets are at the center of a broader effort to rebuild the NBA’s ties with China, with preseason games against the Phoenix Suns in Macao next month signaling the league’s return to the market for the first time since 2019.

The move comes as the league seeks to repair a relationship strained by a combination of geopolitical friction and domestic missteps, including the trade-war era under former President Donald Trump and Daryl Morey’s tweets about Hong Kong. While tensions have cooled in public statements, the teams and league have kept a careful pace, balancing commercial opportunities with sensitivity to Beijing’s politics and the broader Sino-American dynamic.

Ownership of the Nets also matters in this context. Joe Tsai, one of the most prominent businessmen in China, leads the franchise, a factor that insiders say helps the team navigate complex cross-border inquiries and sponsorship deals. In recent days, the Nets have signaled continued willingness to deepen ties with Chinese partners through player acquisition and on-court programming.

Signaling that approach, Brooklyn on Monday announced the signing of Chinese national team guard Fanbo Zeng. People with knowledge of the talks told The New York Post that Zeng will join the Nets, a move widely viewed as an explicit attempt to broaden the club’s ties to Chinese basketball and to expand the market’s stake in the team’s future.

Next month’s Macao exhibitions will mark the NBA’s first games in China since 2019, when the Nets and Los Angeles Lakers played a pair of preseason affairs there. The Suns will be the opponent in Macao, and the trip is part of a broader league initiative to re-engage fans, sponsors, and broadcasters in the world’s most populous nation. The Nets’ presence underscores the team’s and the league’s ongoing strategy to balance global growth with political and public-relations considerations.

Observers describe the Macao games as a test case for how far the league can go in normalizing interactions with China while navigating a delicate geopolitical landscape. For the franchise, the effort is as much about cultivating long-term business opportunities as it is about on-court performance. The Nets’ path to rebuilding ties aligns with the NBA’s broader approach: a measured, incremental return to a market central to the sport’s global ambitions.