Commissioner Adam Silver believes that the NBA could stage games in China again, five years after a controversy over the Hong Kong democracy protests prompted a backlash against the top-flight North American league.

The Houston Rockets’ then general manager Daryl Morey posted a message in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong on social media in 2019, setting off a firestorm of controversy for the NBA in the lucrative Chinese market.

China refused to broadcast two preseason games that were held in the country between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets, as corporate sponsors fled and Silver said the NBA suffered “dramatic” financial consequences.

“I think we will bring games back to China at some point,” Silver said on Thursday at the Columbia University Sports Management Conference in New York.

“China’s government took us off the air for a period of time – we accepted that, we stood by our values … anybody in our league has the right to speak out on political matters.”