China Ending 1-Year Suspension of NBA Broadcasts with Lakers vs. Heat Game 5

China Central Television, the country's national broadcast service, announced it will show Game 5 of the 2020 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat after ending a one-year suspension on NBA broadcasts.

Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic reported the news Friday. Marc Stein of the New York Times provided further details about the decision:

Last October, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey posted a picture on Twitter that read: "Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong." It was later deleted.

"Listen, Daryl Morey does NOT speak for the Houston Rockets," team governor Tilman Fertitta wrote in a Twitter reply. "Our presence in Tokyo is all about the promotion of the NBA internationally and we are NOT a political organization."

Morey then issued a statement on Twitter:

CCTV opted against airing future NBA games, however, and the suspension continued throughout the entire 2019-20 regular season and almost all of the playoffs.

The league will return to the Chinese airwaves Friday as LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers have an opportunity to clinch the franchise's 17th championship.

James, the NBA's longtime gold standard and one of the world's most well-known athletes, received criticism for his lack of a stance on Morey, China and Hong Kong:

"When I speak about something, I speak about something I'm very knowledgeable about, something I'm very passionate about. I feel like with this particular situation, it was something not only I was not informed enough about, I just felt like it was something that not only myself or my teammates or my organization had enough information to even talk about it at that point in time and we still feel the same way."

Tipoff for Game 5 is scheduled for Friday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC in the United States. That's a 9 a.m. start time Saturday morning in Beijing.