A woman and a man in LeBron James jerseys hold Chinese national flags before an NBA exhibition game between the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers in Shanghai in 2019. Aly Song/Reuters Hong Kong —

As soon as he learned the NBA was returning to China, diehard fan Buke Liu scrambled to get his hands on tickets, paying almost a thousand dollars – a price you might expect for an NBA Finals game – for a ticket to a preseason match-up.

One of America’s most successful sporting exports, the NBA is hugely popular in China, and a rare cultural touchpoint between two nations increasingly seen as geopolitical rivals.

For Liu, and many Chinese fans, it’s been a long wait to go to a game. NBA teams, packed with global stars, have effectively been banned from setting foot in one of bas

See Full Page