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NBA China Names Veteran CEO as League Still Faces Broadcast Ban

NBA China Names Veteran CEO as League Still Faces Broadcast Ban

(Bloomberg) --

The NBA’s China business has named sports management veteran Michael Ma chief executive officer, replacing Derek Chang, seven months after a Twitter post by a team general manager led to a halt of game broadcasts in China.

Ma, who worked at the NBA for more than a decade before becoming CEO of sports and talent agency Endeavor China, starts at the new post June 1, NBA China said Tuesday on its website. The NBA in March suspended the rest of its 2020 season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ma is taking the job while Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has yet to announce it would start broadcasting NBA games in the league’s biggest overseas market. CCTV suspended its television showings of NBA contests after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey posted support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters on Twitter, sparking fury from advocates of the mainland government.

The Chinese response reverberated through the NBA and news media in both countries, with some backing Morey and others signaling support for staying away from politics, given the business opportunities in the vast market.

The NBA is the most popular U.S. sports league in China and its business there is already a billion-dollar enterprise.

Ma will be responsible for making the NBA even more popular in China while overseeing the league’s businesses there, according to the statement.

Joining NBA in 2003, Ma worked at posts in New York and Beijing, including serving as the league’s global strategy vice president. He helped establish NBA China in 2008, according to the statement. He moved on to Endeavor China in 2016, where he worked with partners such as the U.K.’s Premier League, Major League Baseball and the PGA and LPGA golf tours.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.