On October 5, 2019, three days after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of Hong Kong protestors, the national Chinese television network’s sports channel, CCTV5, suspended its broadcasts of NBA games.
Fast forward a year and the NBA is back on CCTV5, and its return was followed by Daryl Morey stepping down from his role at the Rockets.
Someone must be pulling the strings, or more precisely the lifelines, of the NBA as China is a market where there are hopes for growth.
CCTV5, which works to the orders of the Chinese central government, did not have the power to either suspend or resume NBA coverage on its own. In fact, the one-year suspension hurt its ratings badly. Both decisions must have been handed down from above.
There may be a bigger picture to see here. A year ago, China’s emphasis was to show zero tolerance to anyone who sympathised with the Hong Kong protesters. A year later it needs to show the world a softer image.
As preparations for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics continue, China wants to build goodwill in the face of a groundswell of Western sentiment that the country should not host the Games. Lifting the NBA TV ban – perhaps a death sentence to its ambitions in China – shows magnanimity at the right time.
Not that the NBA has sat back and done nothing for the past year. Its smartest and most critical move was to appoint Michael Ma as chief executive of NBA China last June.
Michael is the first mainland native boss of the NBA’s Beijing office since it was established in 2008. The appointment saw him tasked with repairing relations between the NBA and China. Before joining Endeavor China (WME IMG) in October 2016, he had worked for the NBA for more than 13 years since 2003, during which time he also served as the special assistant to the chief executive of NBA China between 2012 to 2016.
But what is really special about this new chief executive is his father, Ma Guoli, the former boss and founder of CCTV5. In his role as the director of CCTV Sports in the 1990s, Mr. Ma had a cozy relationship with the NBA, which used the broadcaster’s power to build it into a household name in China.
After leaving CCTV Sports, Ma Sr. went on to become chief operating officer of 2008 Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co., Ltd. (BOB) and served as a member of the IOC Olympic Channel. The father’s shrewdness and connections positioned him as a communications link between the IOC and China.
The apparently perfect appointment of Michael Ma to carry the baton seems to signify Chinese control over the NBA’s fortunes in China. With the games resurfacing on the CCTV screens, Ma Jr. certainly scored a magnificent point.
While NBA is tight-lipped about any connection, patriotic Chinese fans are cheering both the return of NBA action and the departure of Daryl Morey. Of course, in the Ma household they have another reason to celebrate. There they have proof that the son also rises.
Lingling Liu is managing director of China Sport Business, an independent company which is not associated with SportBusiness Group companies.