It’s been a six-year-long wait for Yun Hui, who arrived in the Chinese gambling hub to watch the Phoenix Suns take on the Brooklyn Nets on Friday, as the NBA returned to China after a political firestorm that saw it effectively banned from one of its most lucrative markets.

“Every time we turn on the TV and we don’t see NBA games, it’s kind of sad,” Beijing-based Yun told NBC News, wearing the jersey of his favorite player, Brooklyn Nets’ Zeng Fanbo.

“It means a lot to me,” the 28-year-old risk manager said.

The NBA has long been one of the most popular U.S. cultural exports to China , where basketball is tremendously popular, with the league saying an estimated 300 million people play the sport there.

In 2019, the league’s deep ties to China imploded over a tweet by Daryl Mor

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