Boost for NBA-China relations as ambassador to the US Qin Gang attends Brooklyn Nets game
- Nets owner Joe Tsai invited Qin to the game against Sacramento Kings on February 14, with ambassador to New York Huang Ping also attending
- Weibo post says ambassador Qin was grateful for the invitation and highlighted the sport’s massive fan bases in China and the US
China’s ambassador to the US Qin Gang attended a Brooklyn Nets basketball game as a distinguished guest last week, in what is considered another boost for the relationship between the mainland and the NBA.
Nets owner Joe Tsai – who is also the co-founder and executive vice-chairman of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post – invited Qin and his entourage to a game at the Barclays Centre, New York against the Sacramento Kings on February 14.
The Chinese Consul General in New York, Huang Ping, was also there as the Nets blew the Kings out 109-85.
According to the Nets’ Weibo post, ambassador Qin said he was grateful for the invitation and that the influence of basketball reaches far beyond the sport itself, as it has a large number of fans in both China and the US.
“We expect basketball to play an increasingly important role in deepening the understanding between the two peoples,” Qin said, according to the Nets’ Weibo post, as he congratulated the NBA on its 75th anniversary year.