That fandom was built over much of the past two decades, a love affair that began in 2002 when the Houston Rockets drafted 7-foot-6-inch Chinese player Yao Ming. Yao went on to have a stellar career (eight-time All-Star, Hall of Famer) during which hundreds of millions of people in China became NBA fans.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) returned to China after a six-year hiatus this weekend, staging two preseason games between the Phoenix Suns and the Brooklyn Nets in Macau—the semi-autonomous territory in the country’s south that is best known for its casinos. It was in one of those casinos—the Venetian , owned by U.S. billionaire Miriam Adelson—that the Suns and Nets played in front of a of thousands of Chinese fans.
The Nationa
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