Patrick Dumont: The Casino Mogul Who Brought the NBA Back to China

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Patrick Dumont: The Casino Mogul Who Brought the NBA Back to China.

It was news that made the sports world sit up and take notice: In October 2025, the NBA returned to the court in China for the first time in six years. Two preseason games between the Phoenix Suns and the Brooklyn Nets in Macau marked the end of a deep rift – and few names are as closely tied to this return as that of Patrick Dumont.

The current co-owner of the Dallas Mavericks first came to the league in 2021 with an idea that many considered hopeless. At the time, he was still a top manager at casino giant Las Vegas Sands, which operated several highly profitable casinos in Macau. His plan: The NBA should find its way back to China via Macau – not via Beijing, not via Shanghai, but via the special administrative region where his company was already rooted.

According to The Athletic, Dumont believed from the start that the fractured relationship between the league and China was not irreparable. His proposal initially sounded unusual, according to several sources familiar with the negotiations – but in the end, his persistence paid off.

How it all began: The Morey tweet and the 2019 break

To understand what Dumont achieved, one must look back to the starting point of the conflict. In October 2019, Daryl Morey, then General Manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted his support for the democracy protests in Hong Kong. The reaction from Beijing was fierce: Chinese state broadcasters pulled NBA games from their programming, sponsors withdrew, and the relationship between the league and one of its most important markets froze virtually overnight.

For six years, no games were played in China. Games did gradually return to Chinese state television, and business activities also picked up step by step, as CNN reports. But Chinese fans could no longer see NBA players live – until last October.

The Man Behind the Scenes

Patrick Dumont has become known in the sports world primarily as the new co-owner of the Dallas Mavericks. But his actual background is in the gambling industry: As a senior manager at Las Vegas Sands – the company of the late Sheldon Adelson – he led the Macau operations for years. When Adelson died in 2021 and the family took over, Dumont retained his influence and connections in the region.

These connections paid off. According to a New York Times report, Dumont approached NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in 2021 with the proposal to bring American professional basketball back to China. His argument: The relationship was damaged, but not destroyed. The path there would lead through Macau – where his company was already strongly anchored and the political framework is different from that on the Chinese mainland.

The Games in Macau: More Than Just a Trial Run

In October 2025, the time had come. The Phoenix Suns and the Brooklyn Nets faced off in Macau – in front of an audience that had been deprived of this kind of live basketball for six years. For Foreign Policy, the return was a signal with a double message: The NBA was showing presence in a strategically important market, while at the same time the sports-political tensions between Washington and Beijing were escalating.

The games themselves were more than just sporting events. They symbolized the NBA cautiously but resolutely rebuilding ties with China. According to NBC News, new partnerships and sponsorship deals were also announced in the course of the return – a sign that the league may have regained Beijing's favor.

What the NBA Takes from the Macau Model

The success in Macau raises the question of whether this approach could work for other countries as well. At its core, the approach is pragmatic: Anyone wanting to enter politically tricky terrain looks for a neutral entry point with familiar structures. For the NBA, Macau was that entry point – a place where Western corporations can operate under Chinese sovereignty, but with different regulatory rules than on the mainland.

The Financial Times, quoted by Sports Business Journal, sees the return as the NBA's attempt to reconcile with one of its most important markets. The risks remain real, however: Political tensions, trade conflicts, and the memory of 2019 have not disappeared. Whether the NBA can establish a lasting foothold remains to be seen.

A Conclusion with a Question Mark

Patrick Dumont has made history with his initiative – for now. He proved that even a years-long rupture need not be the last word when someone comes along with the right connections, the necessary capital, and an unconventional idea. The Mavericks are his new playing field, but the NBA-China deal remains his biggest coup to date.

What this means for you: If you're an NBA fan, the signs are good that you'll regularly see games involving China in the coming years – whether live, via stream, or on free-to-air TV. And if you look at business relationships between Western leagues and Asia: Macau is likely to play a role as a model more often.