As the NBA returned to China for the first time in six years, it was a spectacle to behold.
Thousands of fans from across the world flocked into the Venetian Arena here to watch the NBA China Games, the league’s first in the country since 2019.
As the excitement brewed for the basketball-crazed nation, where an estimated 125 million people play basketball, it spilled from out the court to across the town.
Aside from inflated basketballs and signages about the NBA Macau Games, thousands of fans clad in various NBA jerseys – from Devin Booker to Cam Thomas to Michael Jordan – and NBA apparel also made their way across streets.
It cultivated on Friday, where 11,317 roaring fans watched the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns trade haymakers in a preseason game, where the Suns grabbed the 132-127 overtime victory.
There, celebrities such as Jackie Chan and David Beckham, as well as basketball icons Jeremy Lin, Shaquille O’Neal, Yao Ming, Dwyane Wade and Vince Carter, among others, were in attendance.
On Saturday afternoon, fans were treated to a fun spectacle during the NBA Fan Day.
The fan event kicked off with dazzling performances, followed by a skills challenge, won by Dillon Brooks-led Team Phoenix, as well as a 3-point challenge that was won by Team Suns, led by Grayson Allen and Isaiah Livers.
These were followed by a halfcourt challenge, where both teams tried to make more shots from the halfcourt line.
The main event of the night was a slam dunk competition, where local dunkers faced off against professional slammers.
Judges Stephon Marbury, Shawn Marion, O’Neal, Lin and MC Jin said before the contest started that ‘perfect 10’ dunks were about ‘creativity,’ ‘power,’ ‘if they can make it in the first attempt,’ ‘something that we have not seen before’ and ‘if it can make me run around like crazy.’
Dunkers Chen Dengxing, Wan Lei, Jonathan Edwards and Tyler Currie surely brought these with them, as they garnered oohs and aahs from the crowd with their gravity-defying, thunderous and powerful jams.
At the end of the night, Currie, who jumped over Marion and finished emphatically, garnering a perfect 50 from the judges.
The crowd was then treated to a performance by Chinese boy band Mirror, much to the delight of the fans.
Seeing thousands of people cheer for a sport was indeed a sight to behold, as collective applause united the fans, regardless of nationality, speaking language and political inclinations, even for a few hours.
An ‘NBA House’ was also launched in time for the Macau Games, where fans could enter free of charge and experience several basketball-related activities.
Here, fans could get a ‘passport’ and get stamps from every activity they take part in, including booths from NBA 2K, the Replay Center and an LED court.
The new NBA Store was also launched at the Londoner, where fans could not only buy apparel but also customize jerseys and shirts. There is also a half-court in the store where fans could do skills challenges.
This year’s China Games will be capped off on Sunday evening, where the Suns and Nets take on each other once again.
Of course, the trip was made easier with finance super app Gcash.
GCash, an all-in-one app for shopping, paying bills and sending money operated by Globe, could be used even abroad. It could be used to buy food, from outside restaurants to arena concession stands, as well as NBA Store merchandise.
However, there were some stores that could not read the QR code that was generated from the GCash app, so make sure to look for Alipay and GCash logos posted outside shops.