JackSlater
Registered User
- Apr 27, 2010
- 19,053
- 14,307
Also, how much can China really impact the NBA financially? And vice versa, China has to be making a **** ton off of them, no?
The NBA makes way more from China than China does from the NBA. I've read that the NBA's income from China years is, conservatively, over half a billion a year, and that's without getting into things like sponsor ties to China or the shoe company ties to China. For China the risk is reputation. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people watch the NBA, and they aren't just going to stop even if China tries to block the NBA. Of course this incident is further exposing China in countries like the United States, but the league openly defying the Chinese government would be noticed by many citizens in China and that is what the government wouldn't want.
Basically, I don't think that either side wants to see the NBA out of China by any stretch. The NBA loses money and the Chinese government loses "face" and sees its reputation somewhat damaged. The Chinese government wants the NBA to show submissiveness and the NBA basically wants the whole thing to go away. Of course, it's now going to come up every time an NBA player or coach tries to weigh in on important issues not pertaining to basketball.