I found this link as one of the more recent articles about China's political pressure machine that has a lot of the stuff I mentioned and a few other examples. There's lots of material out there if you're looking for it. This just happens to have a lot of examples in one place and has more on the hotel guy that got fired.
Just in case someone wanted more examples about slighting China, emphasis on 'slight': http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/lebron-jamess-statement-on-china-was-disappointing.html
With 1.4 billion people and being more capitalist than communist in recent years, obviously there is a lot of money to be made in China so I can't imagine anything but a hands off approach to them. But that's why I think a bigger push should be made towards India, who is expected to soon surpass China in population and is less 'hostile' in relation to the US. But no country is perfect and the US has plenty of its own problems so... grain of salt and all that.
The use of sports in aiding diplomacy has a long history, though, in several different countries. So there's more to be gained than just profits with situations like these. Spreading culture and opening lines of communication that weren't there before are more valuable in the long run than they might appear.
And yeah, when you talk about any organization as big as the NBA separating politics and economics isn't realistic, especially once a focus on something draws all eyes. I don't think this situation would have been as bad if not for the current trade war or the US issues with Huawei. China is on the defensive already of all things American and if this is just another proxy battle, then the US lost handily and exposed one of its greatest weaknesses: $$$