Last month, People’s Daily, a Communist Party newspaper, published what looked like a rare opinion column by a foreigner, the basketball star LeBron James. In it, he praised basketball as a cultural bridge between countries. The problem: Mr. James never wrote it.

上月，中共党报《人民日报》刊发了一篇看似罕见的外国人署名评论文章，作者是篮球明星勒布朗·詹姆斯。文中他盛赞篮球是国家间的文化桥梁。但问题在于：詹姆斯从未写过这篇文章。

Mr. James had been talking to Chinese reporters while on a trip there, and the newspaper turned those comments into an essay with his name on it. Being depicted as the author of a piece in People’s Daily, the voice of the ruling party, is no small matter; it suggested that Mr. James was endorsing Beijing’s message at a time of deep tensions with Washington.

詹姆斯访华期间曾接受中国记者采访，《人民日报》将采访内容整理成文，并署上他的名字刊发。而在执政党喉舌《人民日报》发表署名文章绝非小事，这暗示着詹姆斯在中美关系紧张之际支持北京的信息。

For Adam Silver, the commissioner of the N.B.A., that crossed a line. “Taking words somebody said and then making it seem as a first-person Op-Ed,” Mr. Silver told The New York Times, in his first comments about the incident, “would not be appropriate.”

NBA总裁萧华(Adam Silver)认为这种做法越过了底线。他在首次就此事发声时向《纽约时报》表示：“截取他人言论，将其包装成第一人称评论文章，这种做法并不恰当。”

The backlash in America to what people thought was an opinion piece was swift. Conservative commentators said Mr. James was letting Beijing use his fame to whitewash the image of the authoritarian government. One website said the N.B.A. was “groveling to the communists.”

在美国，公众误以为这是詹姆斯主动撰写的评论文章，随即引发强烈反弹。保守派评论人士指责詹姆斯任由中国政府利用其名气，为威权政府形象“洗白”；一个网站称NBA“向共产党卑躬屈膝”。

The incident was only the latest reminder of the potential political minefield the league faces as it resumes play in China after a six-year absence.

这一事件再次提醒人们：在时隔六年后重返中国市场之际，NBA面临着潜在的政治雷区。

The Brooklyn Nets will play the Phoenix Suns in Macau on Sunday night, the second of two preseason games. The games are the result of a yearslong effort by the league — and by Patrick Dumont, a casino mogul turned team owner — to regain its footing in China, a hugely important market.

周日晚，布鲁克林篮网队与菲尼克斯太阳队在澳门上演对决，这是两场季前赛中的第二场。此次赛事是NBA联盟——以及从赌场大亨转型为球队老板的帕特里克·杜蒙——为重新进入中国这个极其重要的市场而多年努力的结果。

NBA周末重返中国，在澳门举行季前赛，该联盟正在体育与政治之间走钢丝。

China has its own reasons for welcoming back the N.B.A. The Chinese government has been struggling to breathe life into an economy where people have been holding back on spending.

中国对NBA的回归也有自己的考量。面对民众消费意愿低迷，中国政府正竭力为经济注入活力。

Beijing wants to use sports and international events to “boost overall consumption,” said Crystal Wang, an expert on Chinese sports with the consultancy Deloitte in Shanghai. “That is from the top.”

德勤上海办公室的中国体育业务专家克里斯塔·王（音）表示：“中国政府希望借助体育赛事及国际活动‘拉动整体消费’，这是自上而下的决策。”

According to state media, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping has a soft spot for basketball, having played pickup games while working as a local official in Hebei Province.

据官方媒体报道，中国领导人习近平对篮球情有独钟，在河北担任地方官员期间，曾多次参与业余篮球比赛。

Beijing hopes the league can showcase China as open and welcoming. The government has turned to athletes, scholars and influencers to promote “people to people” ties aimed at countering hostility from both sides of the political aisle in the United States.

中国政府希望通过这项赛事展现开放友好的国家形象。目前，政府正借助运动员、学者及网络红人推动“民间外交”，以应对美国两党对中国的敌意。

Xie Feng, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, for instance, cited what he described as Mr. James’s Op-Ed for People’s Daily, saying on X: “It’s heartening to see sports are bringing our people closer.”

例如，中国驻美大使谢锋在社交平台X上援引这篇他所谓詹姆斯为《人民日报》撰写的评论文章，称：“看到体育正在拉近我们两国人民的距离，令人欣慰。”

Basketball is wildly popular in China. That is what makes N.B.A. stars so valuable there — but it also forces the players to walk a razor-thin line between sports and politics.

篮球在中国拥有极高人气，这使得NBA球星在中国极具商业价值，但同时也迫使球员在体育与政治之间小心翼翼地走钢丝。

It is a line the league has stumbled over before. In 2019, Daryl Morey, then the general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. That and the league’s refusal to punish Mr. Morey shut the N.B.A. out of China for years, costing the league more than $300 million in revenue.

NBA此前曾在这个问题上栽过跟头。2019年，时任休斯顿火箭队总经理的达里尔·莫雷发推支持香港民主抗议活动，加之联盟拒绝处罚莫雷，导致NBA被中国市场封杀数年，损失逾3亿美元收入。

But N.B.A. athletes who have traveled to China after the incident have found a lucrative market.

但事件发生后，前往中国的NBA球员发现这里仍是利润丰厚的市场。

The Los Angeles Clippers star James Harden, who has criticized Mr. Morey, praised China and even hinted at moving there, has been rewarded by Chinese fans. In 2023, he sold 10,000 bottles of wine from his personal label on a Chinese livestream in seconds.

洛杉矶快船队球星詹姆斯·哈登曾公开批评莫雷，他不仅盛赞中国，甚至暗示考虑移居中国，这番表态也为他赢得了中国球迷的支持。2023年，他在中国直播平台销售个人品牌葡萄酒时，几秒钟就售出了1万瓶。

When Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors toured western China in August, he was greeted by an enormous drone show, sponsored by a local tourism board, that depicted him high-fiving a panda.

今年8月，金州勇士队的斯蒂芬·库里赴中国西部巡访时，当地旅游部门为其举办了盛大的无人机表演，无人机编队在空中呈现出他与熊猫击掌的画面。

Players know to steer clear of politics, said Terry Rhoads, a Shanghai-based sports consultant who helped build a market for the N.B.A. in China while working for Nike. “Every single N.B.A. player that comes out to China is being briefed on, ‘Hey, we’re out there to have fun. We’re out there to get the kids loving basketball.’”

曾在任职耐克期间助力NBA在中国开拓市场的上海体育行业顾问陆海瑞(Terry Rhoads)表示：“球员们都清楚要避开政治话题。每一位来中国的NBA球员都会被告知：‘嘿，我们来这里是为了享受乐趣，是为了让孩子们爱上篮球。’”

当斯蒂芬·库里8月造访中国重庆时，当地政府用无人机表演迎接他，画面中他与熊猫击掌相庆。这显示出官员们将明星运动员视为政治使者。

Mr. Silver said that China put no conditions on speech ahead of the N.B.A. resuming play. But the stakes of offending China are clear.

萧华称，中国方面并未在NBA复赛前附加任何言论限制条件。但得罪中国的风险显而易见。

And they cut both ways: Players also face criticism in the United States if they seem too cozy with Beijing — as the LeBron James episode with People’s Daily showed.

而且这种风险是双向的：正如詹姆斯《人民日报》事件所显示的，若球员看似与中国政府关系过密，也会在美国国内招致批评。

Adam Mendelsohn, an adviser to Mr. James, sought to downplay that incident, saying that the media had “incorrectly characterized” the piece as an Op-Ed that he had written.

詹姆斯的顾问亚当·门德尔松试图淡化此次事件影响，称媒体将这篇文章“错误定性”为詹姆斯撰写的评论专栏。

But People’s Daily had described the player as the author of the essay, and promoted it on its official social media account with a post titled: “LeBron James Writes in People’s Daily.”

但《人民日报》当时明确将詹姆斯标注为文章作者，并在其官方社交账号上以“勒布朗·詹姆斯在《人民日报》撰文”推广该内容。

Mr. James had also been accused of pandering to China in 2019 when he criticized Mr. Morey over the tweet.

詹姆斯在2019年就曾因批评莫雷的推文被指责“讨好中国”。

“So many people could have been harmed not only financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually,” he said at the time. “Yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too.”

他当时表示：“太多人可能会因此受到伤害，不仅是经济层面，还包括身体、情感和精神层面。没错，我们确实拥有言论自由，但这种自由也可能带来诸多负面影响。”