Silver estimates 'substantial' financial hit from NBA's tension with China

NBA commissioner Adam Silver estimates the league has taken "substantial" financial losses related to ongoing tensions with China. However, the loss is "much less" than $1 billion, a figure that had been broached by some prognosticators.

"I think the magnitude of loss will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Certainly less than $400 million - maybe even less than that," Silver said at a press conference ahead of All-Star Saturday Night in Chicago.

"It's substantial. I don't want to run from that," he continued. "We were taken off the air in China for a period of time and it caused our many business partners in China to feel it was therefore inappropriate to have ongoing relationships with us. But I don't have any sense that there's any permanent damage to our business there.

"And as I said before, we accept the consequences of our system and our values, it's not a position any business wants to be in, but those are the results - far lower than the multi-billion numbers that you had heard."

The thawing of what had been a strong relationship between the league and its partners in China was sparked in October by a tweet from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. The longtime front-office executive tweeted a picture expressing solidarity with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.