NBA chief plays down chances of regular-season games in Asia after multi-year Macau deal

The Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns will play each other twice in three days for pre-season at the Venetian Arena next October

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NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum at a press conference following the announcement of NBA pre-season games in Macau.
Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 2:00pm, 7 Dec 2024

The National Basketball Association (NBA) deputy commissioner has played down the chances of regular-season matches being played in Asia after Macau rebooted the NBA China Games with a five-year, multimillion dollar deal on Friday.

The Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns will play each other twice in three days, on October 10 and 12 next year, at the 14,000-seat Venetian Arena in Macau next year.

Making its debut in Shanghai and Beijing in 2004, the NBA China Games were pre-season games events over the subsequent 15 years with matches also played in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as a one-time occasion in the former Portuguese colony of Macau in 2007.

Mark Tatum, deputy commissioner of the NBA, said it would be difficult to play any NBA games beyond pre-season in a region so far away from the United States.

“Our teams play 82 games in about 170 days, so when you factor in travel and the amount of time it would take to get here to play the games and then travel back, you’re literally taking days out of the system, which would create more density for those clubs,” he said.

NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum has played down the chances of regular-season NBA Games in Asia. Photo: AFP

“When you create more density for the clubs, some of the feedback we’ve heard was it affected performance, and that’s why, over the years, we’ve been focused on reducing the number of back-to-backs, reducing the number of four games in five nights, and that’s been a huge priority for us as a league.”