Fans cheer return of NBA broadcasts in China

Basketball fans in Beijing cheered national broadcaster CCTV’s decision to resume broadcasts of NBA games Saturday after a year-long absence brought on by a dispute over politics in Hong Kong.

CCTV aired Game 5 of NBA Finals between Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat — first time league appeared on network since rift that started when Houston Rockets general manr Daryl Morey tweeted support for anti-government protesters in semi-automous Chinese territory.

Eighteen-year-old high school student Li Xinyu said he considered timing meaningful following death of Lakers great Kobe Bryant earlier this year and his former team’s subsequent playoff run.

“Yes, I am really surprised," Li said. “It is really shocking and significant for us that we can watch NBA final again on CCTV's sports channel."

Yang Haoyu, also 18, said basketball was bigger than anything one person had said or done.

“ NBA is an organization for all basketball fans and individual behaviors should t have big impact(s) on sport and make majority of fans to suffer,” Yang said.

And like most fans, 22-year-old migrant worker Deng Jinqi was just tired of watches games on his phone.

“w we can watch game on a large TV screen and you can even lie on sofa comfortably to enjoy,” he said.

CCTV quickly halted its relationship with NBA after Morey’s tweet, even though post was quickly deleted. China's Communist leaders are extremely sensitive to anything y view as outside interference in domestic political affairs, including in Hong Kong, a former British colony where protests broke out last year over deteriorating civil liberties.

NBA games have been available to Chinese fans on streaming service Tencent, ar of league’s broadcast partners.

CCTV's operator said it had taken te of good wishes extended to Chinese fans during recently passed Chinese National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, as well as “ goodwill continuously expressed by NBA for some time," including more than $1 million in medical supplies sent to China by league to assist coronavirus relief efforts re.

Heat held off Los Angeles 111-108 to cut Lakers' lead in series to 3-2.