One tweet was all it took to turn derail the NBA’s plans for international growth.

The NBA has suffered “substantial” losses after Houston Rockets’ manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong which resulted in a public relations nightmare in China the NBA’s commissioner has said.

“The financial consequences have been, and may continue to be, fairly dramatic,” Adam Silver said earlier this month 

This resulted in many Chinese businesses suspending sponsorship’s with the NBA and Chinese broadcasters opting out of broadcasting Rockets’ matches.

NBA China, which is tasked with expanding the NBA brand within China was launched in 2008 and is now worth more than $4bn, according to Forbes.

Basketball is China’s number one sport and an estimated 350 million play the game.

The reaction highlights rising nationalism in China and growth of the Communist Party of China, the ruling political party of China. It is also a wake-up call for NBL owner Larry Kestelman that now is the time to break into the world’s second-largest economy.

The NBL has hoped to gain traction in Asia for more than twenty years with the NBL and it’s teams financing tours to China, holding tournaments down under (like the YouYi games which financed the Chinese national team to play games in Perth), paying for Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) teams to take part in NBL pre-season tournaments and even having NBL teams based in China and Singapore.

The Chinese market has proven to yield ridiculous money and still has unlocked potential given the country’s vast population and a growing interest in sport. But it is risky business in a country which does not take criticism well.

Andrew Bogut fell victim to Chinese basketball fans during last months FIBA World Cup after he jokingly tweeted about criticising Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, a suspected drug user. Throughout the month long tournament held in Shanghai, Bogut was booed every time Bogut touched the ball.

The Australia-China relationship has traditionally been dominated by global geopolitical and strategic concerns, but since the 1980s the two countries have built up a range of common bilateral and regional interests, including strong economic ties. 

Now the spotlight is on the NBA and the United States for it’s views on China and Hong Kong but we shouldn’t forget that Australia faced very similar experiences with China in 1996 after the middle kingdom became concerned concerned about our increasing contact with Taiwan.

With the NBA on the outs in China and Australian basketball now at it’s peak with more players competing in the NBA, greater TV viewership and level of competition in the NB stronger than ever before, the time has never been better for the Kestleman and his team to revisit plans to grow the NBL in China.

The NBL has so far declined to comment on issues between China and the NBA but no doubt there are discussions internally on how to take advantage of this.

The NBL has a window now to rekindle concepts that were previously dismissed like holding tournaments between the teams from both the CBA and the NBL or programs designed to develop and grow Chinese basketball talent here in Australia.

Our basketball coaching fraternity would also likely feel an impact from Chinese shift away from US basketball with China likely to stop relying on US coaching resources they currently receive from the NBA.

Previous NBL coaches like Brian Goorjian, Rob Beveridge, Shawn Dennis, Bill Tomlinson and others have all coached successful stints in the country known as the “Red Dragon” and it wouldn’t be a surprise for China to look closer at the strong pipeline of basketball coaches our country produces. 

With the NBL only having 9 teams, many of our top coaching talent are forced to coach overseas or earn less than should in NBL, taking assistant coaching roles because they want to stay close to home.

China view themselves as a strong, noble and patriotic nation, there is great opportunity for Australian basketball right now to reach audiences numbers never thought possible. But China will also choose China over anything else, and the same risks felt by the NBA also apply to the NBL, Australia and anyone else who attempts to move into the Chinese market.

So please proceed Larry Kestelman, but proceed with caution.