China re-broadcasts an NBA game two and a half years after the boycott

Two years, five months, and 22 days.

That is how long it has taken for China Central Television (CCTV) to re-broadcast an NBA game since the news blackout taken in 2019. At that time, in the midst of the riots for democracy in Hong Kong, Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey, now in Philadelphia, shared the following reflection on his Twitter account: "Fight for freedom, support Hong Kong."

In China, Morey's tweet, which was deleted after a few hours, did not sit well at all and, despite attempts by Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, to make amends before breaking the link, CCTV decided to cancel the broadcast and any type of coverage of the league matches immediately.

After his support for the demonstrations, Morey received a wave of criticism and insults through Twitter, a social network banned in China but used by the government for propaganda purposes abroad.

Yao Ming, a Chinese sports legend and, precisely, a former Houston Rockets player, described the executive's statements as "inappropriate."

Furthermore, Chinese sponsorships in the world's best basketball league began to fall like a house of cards: a dozen deals were broken within 24 hours of Morey's tweet.

A dangerous threat to the expansion of the league, since it is estimated that some 500 million fans consume NBA content in the Asian giant, more than the inhabitants of the United States (329 million).

Now, two and a half years after the relationship was broken, and with several sponsorships recovered, CCTV has decided to return to broadcasting NBA content to its viewers.

The Los Angeles Clippers' victory against the Utah Jazz last Wednesday (121-115) was the first game broadcast in China after

.

At the moment, the reasons for this backtracking are unknown.

Kristen Looney, a professor specializing in Chinese politics at Georgetown University, told the

that the decision may be due to the simple passage of time or a broader geopolitical calculation, since "both countries are interested in maintaining good economic relations despite the differences.

Mike Bass, one of the main spokesmen for the NBA, has been satisfied with the news, but wanted to remind us of the importance of respecting freedom of expression in the face of statements such as that of Daryl Morey: "We have always supported and will support the members of the NBA who share their opinions on social or political issues.

We are Family".

The truth is that the news boycott was not the only reason why relations between the league and the Asian giant were not going through their best moment.

In 2020,

reported that there was widespread child abuse at several Chinese government-run basketball academies co-sponsored by the NBA.

Shortly after, an NBA spokesman clarified that the league had severed its ties with these schools.

In any case, before the boycott, the NBA had had a presence in the Asian market since it opened its first office in Hong Kong in 1992. The 2019 news blackout ended nearly three decades of non-stop broadcasting.

Now, after two and a half years of fading to black, the best basketball league in the world returns to broadcast in the most populous country on the planet.

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