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Thursday 24 december 2020

NBA studying ways to bring games back overseas in future

By TIM REYNOLDS preventing the league from pandemic forced those to
AP Basketball Writer playing any games outside be tabled.
The NBA is still looking at the U.S. this season, except "We do anticipate that
scenarios that could allow possibly a return by the To- once it becomes healthy
teams to play in Europe ronto Raptors to Canada and safe to be able to do
and China again next sea- — something that won't that that we'll return to a
son, deputy commissioner happen before March at schedule of international
Mark Tatum said Tuesday. the earliest. preseason and regular-
Tatum also said the NBA's Typically, the NBA has season games," Tatum said
season-opening double- played preseason games on a call with international
header Tuesday night in China and takes some reporters.
would be shown in Chi- regular-season games to NBA games were avail-
na on Tencent, a league Mexico and Europe. This able on Tencent last sea-
streaming partner. But the season's plans called for a son even while the league
coronavirus pandemic is game in Paris, though the and the Chinese govern- In this Sept. 8, 2020 file photo, Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Ante-
tokounmpo, center, shouts from the bench in the first half of an
NBA conference semifinal playoff basketball game against the
Miami Heat in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Associated Press

ment worked through a Tatum's comments came
very strained relationship on the day the NBA re-
— an October 2019 tweet vealed its roster breakdown
by then-Houston gener- of international players for
al manager Daryl Morey this season; 107 such play-
showing support for anti- ers from 41 countries made
government protesters in opening-night rosters, in-
Hong Kong prompted ma- cluding a record 17 Cana-
jor fallout, including state dian players and a record-
broadcaster CCTV not tying 14 African players.
showing any NBA games "It's just not the quantity of
for a full year. CCTV put the players but the qual-
the NBA back on its chan- ity," Tatum said. "These are
nel lineup for the last two some of the best players in
games of the NBA Finals the game."
last fall. That list includes Greece's
Commissioner Adam Silver two-time reigning NBA MVP
said at the All-Star break Giannis Antetokounmpo of
this past February that Milwaukee, Slovenia's Luka
the league's issues with Doncic of Dallas, Serbia's
China would lead to per- Nikola Jokic of Denver, and
haps as much as $400 mil- Toronto's Pascal Siakam
lion in lost revenue — and and Philadelphia's Joel Em-
that was before the pan- biid — both from Camer-
demic struck and led to oon.
even more revenue missed The NBA regular season is
leaguewide. scheduled to run through
"There's no doubt that we mid-May, with the playoffs
have a long history in Chi- going from May 22 through
na, a more than 40-year July 22. That has led to
history of doing business in much speculation about
China, and that we remain NBA players being able to
committed to people-to- participate in the Olym-
people exchange with the pics, which open in Tokyo
hundreds of millions of fans on July 23.
that we have there," Tatum There are 24 nations —
said. "Playing global games Greece, Canada, Serbia
has been and will continue and Slovenia among them
to be an important part of — scheduled to compete
how we engage with our starting in late June for the
fans in China and in other final four spots in the Olym-
parts of the world, as well." pic men's tournament. q