The timing of the tweet was particularly awkward, given that the Nets and Los Angeles Lakers were in China at the time for two games. The games were played – largely in silence with fans in attendance, many taping over the NBA logos on the jerseys they wore – and even without customary pregame and postgame news conferences.

The NBA was criticized by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. for playing and for not saying more about China’s human rights record.

In large part because Silver did not sanction Morey to China’s liking, no NBA games were shown on CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, for one year after that tweet. The end of the 2020 NBA Finals was shown on CCTV, which began showing games in earnest again in 2022. NBA games were available to Chinese fans on the streaming service Tencent, another of the league’s broadcast partners.

The league said the rift cost up to $400 million in lost revenue in the year that followed, and that figure surely continued rising. But there were steps toward a reconciliation along the way. NBA legend Yao Ming went to the U.S. for the memorial service for commissioner emeritus David Stern in January 2020, a move viewed at the time as a mutual sign that the league and China wanted to mend fences. That was followed by China publicly thanking the NBA in February 2020 – when what became the COVID-19 pandemic was in its earliest days – for sending more than $1 million in medical supplies to assist coronavirus relief efforts there.