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NBA looks to China for growth, renewing a foothold in its second-largest market
Michael Porter Jr. #17 of the Brooklyn Nets shoots the ball during practice and media availability as part of 2025 NBA Global Games China at Venetian Arena on October 9, 2025 in Macao, China.
Ryan Stetz | National Basketball Association | Getty Images
MACAO — The National Basketball Association returns to China for the first of two Macao games on Friday, and the impact extends beyond the preseason.
The weekend marks a major milestone for the NBA, as years of rebuilding its relationship with its second-largest market culminate with the Phoenix Suns and Brooklyn Nets facing off in the Venetian Arena here. For the NBA, it could mean unlocking future growth in China as television viewership declines in the U.S.
The NBA’s return to China comes after a six-year hiatus following 2019 comments by Daryl Morey, then-Houston Rockets general manager, voicing support for Hong Kong protestors and setting off an international crisis. For the next three years, the league was largely absent from Chinese airwaves in China. Nearly every Chinese sponsor cut ties with the NBA.
But the NBA’s history in China dates back to the 1970s. Since 1979, the NBA and USA basketball have played a total of 48 games in China, according to NBA data. Demand for the 2025 Macao games, set for Friday and Sunday, was high: At the upper end, tickets were going for more than $3,000.
And there are signs of progress off the court, too.
The league on Thursday announced a renewed partnership with Alibaba, making the tech company’s cloud unit the official cloud computing and AI partner of NBA China. The partnership already included a dedicated NBA section across Alibaba platforms that allow fans in China to engage in content or shop for NBA merchandise.
Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai owns the Nets.
The NBA is hoping to tap into basketball fans among China’s 1.4 billion-person population as the league grapples with cord-cutting and changing viewership habits at home. Last season, television viewership dipped.
Meanwhile, in China, the NBA has won a massive fan base. It’s the most-followed sports league on social media, according to the league, with 425 million followers across league, team and player platforms. To put that number in perspective, that’s more than the entire population of the United States.
The league has also been investing in infrastructure in China. It now has four flagship stores, 45 NBA kids stores, seven NBA e-commerce flagship stores and more than 5,000 partner retail stores across the country.
“We’ve created a lot of fan experiences here, and the goal is to really make something special where the fans of the NBA in Asia and China can really get a true taste of what the NBA has to offer,” said Patrick Dumont, Dallas Mavericks owner and Las Vegas Sands president, who was an architect of the NBA’s return to China. Las Vegas Sands owns the Venetian in Macao, where the two preseason games will be played.
To raise awareness and give back to the local communities, the league has hosted more than 140 community outreach events and built 100 spaces for children and family to learn, live and play in China since 2004. More than 400 current and former NBA players have participated in this program.
This week, the Nets are hosting 13 youth clinics across Hong Kong and Macao, in addition to a basketball court refurbishment project in Hong Kong.
It’s not just at the league level where professional basketball is tapping into China’s potential. At least seven NBA teams and 10 individual players are working with East Goes Global, a marketing and consulting firm that bridges the western brands with Chinese audiences.
“We’re able to localize a ton of their western-facing content, creating new, unique content, even showing up to a lot of the team’s media days to shoot China specific content,” said Andrew Spalter, founder and CEO of the company.
East Goes Global, run by brothers Andrew and Matthew Spalter, also works directly with New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson to grow his international profile in China.
“Jalen is actively speaking to his Chinese audience more so than most athletes have ever done in the past. He’s trying to learn calligraphy, he’s eating Chinese foods, he’s collaborating with Chinese influencers and celebrities,” said Matthew Spalter, chief operating officer at East Goes Global.
Dumont said the Macao games are part of a multi-year deal and that executives are already thinking about next year.
“I think it’s the classic win, win, win,” he said. “It’s great for the NBA because it gets to bring its best product, top teams, real games, real experiences, and it allows local fans who maybe don’t have the ability to get to the U.S. to get to experience the NBA and see basketball played at the highest level.”
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The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has received $1 billion from the Ministry of Finance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, marking the second tranche of a $3 billion deposit agreed recently, the central bank said on Tuesday.
According to the statement issued by the central bank, the second tranche was received with a value date of April 20, 2026.
The first tranche of $2 billion had already been received on April 15, 2026, bringing the total inflows under the arrangement to $3 billion.
The development comes days after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where he engaged in diplomatic efforts aimed at promoting regional peace.
During his visit, the premier met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah and expressed appreciation for the Kingdom’s continued support for Pakistan’s economic stability. He also conveyed solidarity with Saudi Arabia in light of recent regional developments.
Earlier on April 16, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had announced that Saudi Arabia would provide $3 billion in additional financial support, with disbursement expected shortly.
He also noted that Riyadh had extended the tenure of its existing $5 billion deposit, removing the earlier annual rollover requirement.
The Saudi funding has strengthened Pakistan’s external position as it repaid $2 billion in debt to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The amount was kept with the central banks as a safe deposit.
Saudi Arabia has been a key financial partner for Pakistan, having provided support packages during previous economic challenges, including a $6 billion assistance programme in 2018 comprising deposits and oil facility arrangements.
Advocates attend a news conference about the “impact of incarcerating those charged with marijuana-related offenses,” and policy reform ideas, outside the U.S. Capitol on April 20, 2026.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
A White House executive order on psychedelics, signed by President Donald Trump on Saturday, aims to speed up research on drugs like psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine, helping to legitimize an industry that’s long lived largely underground.
But it also raises a broader question: Will psychedelics fall victim, like cannabis has, to a slow-moving federal process?
The latest executive order comes roughly four months after an effort by President Trump to reschedule cannabis, opening the door to greater research and investment opportunities. But since that directive, progress to reclassify cannabis has largely stalled, with the Drug Enforcement Administration review still ongoing and no final decision on moving marijuana from Schedule I to the lesser Schedule III.
The delay reflects how drug policy often slows once it enters interagency review, where scientific evaluation, legal standards and politics meet.
“The process has certainly been slow and frustrating for stakeholders when you consider they have spent decades fighting marijuana’s outrageous 1970s-era misclassification,” said Shawn Hauser, partner at cannabis law firm Vicente LLP.
Vicente LLP also serves as legal counsel for the National Compassionate Care Council, or NCCC, a coalition of health-care stakeholders focused on evidence-based cannabis policy.
The psychedelics order, however, focuses on research acceleration rather than legalization. It directs agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand clinical trials and “Right to Try” access for patients with serious mental health conditions, while leaving drug scheduling unchanged.
AtaiBeckley is among a number of psychedelics-focused drug developers whose stock is rallying since the order was signed over the weekend, up roughly 25% Monday. Several smaller-market cap stocks also jumped, including Compass Pathways, Definium Therapeutics and U.S.-listed shares of Cybin.
Hauser said the recent psychedelics order reflects a broader shift in Washington toward a medical-first framework and could mark a path forward for cannabis rescheduling.
“The science-, patient-, health-care-first approach is winning in Washington right now,” she said.
“The psychedelic pathway — built on physician-led protocols, clinical research and compassionate use frameworks — is actually a model cannabis advocates should be studying and adopting more aggressively,” Hauser said.
Safety first
Trump’s psychedelics measure has drawn particular attention for its inclusion of ibogaine, a powerful, naturally occurring psychoactive compound with long-standing safety concerns.
The drug is being studied for its applications with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and addiction, but cardiac risks flagged by Nora Volkow of the National Institute on Drug Abuse remain a major barrier.
That tension is heightened by the expansion of “Right to Try” access, a federal law allowing patients diagnosed with life-threatening diseases or conditions to try experimental drugs when no other treatments work. This distinction typically applies only after Phase I trials are successful.
Ibogaine has struggled to meet that criteria, since most of the research into the drug has been conducted outside the U.S.
Psychedelic industry leaders say the order is meaningful, but the full impacts are still unknown until implementation catches up to prove scientific value.
“The opportunity now is not hype, it’s execution: rigorous science, disciplined safety standards, physician-led protocols and real-world outcome data,” said Tom Feegel, CEO of clinical neurohealth center Beond.
Beond, based in Cancun, Mexico, specializes in ibogaine therapy.
Feegel added that while the executive order signals legitimacy at the highest level of government, the next phase is critical.
Psychedelics still lack a commercial market, though clinical-stage developers, like AtaiBeckley, Compass and GH Research, are emerging. Many prioritize research around less controversial psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA derivatives for mental health treatment.
U.S. states have been weighing the space, too. Colorado advanced regulated psychedelic access for its residents in 2022, while a Massachusetts ballot measure failed in 2024 with 56% of voters rejecting the access.
Cannabis, by contract, already has a multibillion-dollar adult-use industry across dozens of states, giving it a significant head start even as federal rescheduling remains unresolved.
Hauser argued the two industries are ultimately reinforcing one another.
“The two regulatory tracks aren’t in conflict,” she said. “Both are advancing the broader legitimacy of plant-based alternative medicines, and the infrastructure being built for one will inevitably support the other.”
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