TheMK socks NBA China Games will be held in 2025 after a five-year hiatus, the NBA announced Friday, but the series will be held in Macao Special Administrative Region rather than traditionally being held in Chinese mainland cities.

The Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns will play on October 10 and 12, 2025 in Macao, marking the first NBA China Games since 2019.

NBA games were once extremely popular in China, but the relationship between the NBA and China soured after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver decided not to punish then Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey who posted content on Twitter using a Hong Kong riot slogan in 2019.

It irritated the Chinese fans and triggered repercussions from business partners, as lucrative Chinese sponsorships for the NBA were ended alongside a suspension of NBA games being shown by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). 

Silver estimated in 2021 that the NBA lost over $400 million that year because of the rift. In October 2024, he said he thought the league would “bring games back to China at some point,” multiple US media reported.

NBA games remain available to Chinese fans on the streaming service offered by tech giant Tencent.

Though there have been no team appearances in China in recent years, several NBA players, including Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, have made appearances individually in China. 

The NBA’s local branch NBA China has also engaged with several grassroots-level community activities in recent years, including helping to establish a cave basketball court in Southwest China’s Guizhou Province. 

Joe Tsai, co-founder and chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, owns the Brooklyn Nets. Currently, Chinese player Cui Yongxi is the only Chinese player in the NBA, who is on a two-way contract with the Nets.

Macao will also host a celebrity basketball game on Saturday featuring former NBA stars including NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady and two-time NBA All-Star and three-time CBA champion Stephon Marbury.