New Delhi, Aug. 11 -- NEW YORK - Cooper Flagg's first professional games in China will happen before his second NBA season does.

Flagg, the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year and Dallas's franchise cornerstone, will play his first professional games in China as the league deploys its most marketable young talent for its return to Asia.

For the NBA, the choice is deliberate. League officials have spent the better part of a decade trying to recalibrate a relationship with China disrupted by diplomatic tensions and the fallout from a 2019 tweet that cost the league an estimated $400 million in broadcast and sponsorship revenue. Returning to the region with a marquee preseason series was the opening move. Placing the sport's most prominent you...