The NBA is going back to China next season, as expected, announcing Monday that the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets will play a pair of preseason games at the gambling hub of Macao in October.
The games, like the preseason ones this season between Brooklyn and Phoenix, will be played at Macao’s Venetian Arena, which is owned by the Sands Corp. — a casino operator there as well. Sands president and chief operating officer Patrick Dumont is governor of the Mavericks, which made Dallas a logical pick to play in the China games before too long.
“I could not be prouder of having the Mavericks come to Macao and have the team experience the incredible hospitality that Sands properties provide,” Dumont said in statements released by the NBA.
Houston was another logical pick to play in China. The Rockets have long had enormous popularity in that nation, largely because of Yao Ming — a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, an eight-time NBA All-Star and the best Chinese player ever — spending his NBA career in Houston.
Since drafting Yao in 2002, the Rockets “have received overwhelming love from the passionate basketball fans of China and built several cherished memories playing overseas,” Houston alternate governor Patrick Fertitta said.
The games will be on Oct. 9 and Oct. 11.
Recommended for you
The NBA returned to China this season, the official end of a years-long rift between the league and the Chinese government. It was sparked in October 2019 when Daryl Morey, then the general manager of the Rockets and now an executive with the Philadelphia 76ers, tweeted a show of support for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong.
The tweet was deleted quickly, but the fallout lasted years and Beijing was clearly displeased by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver supporting Morey’s right to speak out.
NBA games were even taken off television in China for years, but fences have been mended and several of the league's biggest names — LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler among them — have visited China in recent years on promotional tours and drawn massive crowds for events.
Macao is a former Portuguese colony that was returned to Chinese rule in 1999 and is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.