With slightly more than a day before game time in Shanghai, it’s looking unlikely the Nets and Lakers will play either of their preseason games in China. The question now is who pulls the plug: the NBA or China.
Overnight U.S. time, the NBA abruptly canceled its media availability for players; Shanghai officials dropped an NBA fan event planned for Wednesday night; the Education Ministry canceled an NBA Cares activity, this one involving the Lakers; the games’s sponsor, a Chinese cell phone company, backed out of its promotions; and in the most telling sign, across China’s largest city, banners and other promotional materials related to the first of the two games were being pulled down from buildings.