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This embryonic N.B.A. season has already given us Trae Young dribbling through J.J. Redick’s legs, Ben Simmons swishing a 3-pointer as if he always makes them and Zion Williamson rumbling for 29 points in his second pro game — with only one miss in 13 shots.

The problem with preseason basketball, of course, is that none of it actually counts. The problem with this preseason, in particular, is that the tension and chaos emanating from China all week very much counts.

It won’t show up anywhere in the standings once the N.B.A.’s highly anticipated regular season begins Oct. 22, but the fallout from the league’s sudden conflict with its second-most important market is sure to linger. The pros and cons of doing business in China are a matter of public debate like never before, with cultural, political and potential multimillion-dollar financial implications and far too much heft to fade as quickly as gaudy preseason statistics.

Perhaps under different circumstances, a Twitter post supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters wouldn’t have sparked such fury. But the message from the Houston Rockets general manager, Daryl Morey, to “fight for freedom” and “stand with Hong Kong” landed amid the animus of a monthslong trade war between the United States and China . Morey also decided to press send right before the Brooklyn Nets, the Los Angeles Lakers and a cadre of league officials, led by Commissioner Adam Silver, headed to China for the league’s annual exhibition series there.