LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard and the rest of the Lakers have taken the floor at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai to play an NBA game, despite protesters at the venue.
With the Chinese government fuming at the NBA over Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey's support of Hong Kong, there were questions if this game would even happen.
But, it's definitely going down right now ... the Lakers are taking on the Brooklyn Nets in one of the most controversial preseason games ever ... since it's now at the center of an International incident.
Protesters outside of the arena held Chinese flags and a sign reading, "F*ck You Morey."
Inside, it seems to be a different story ... with fans cheering LeBron and wearing jerseys of their favorite NBA teams. Some fans even painted their faces.
LeBron was wearing headphones while warming up, seemingly to tune out the noise surrounding the game.
Dwight Howard jumping out of his pants pregame; LeBron is amused 😎 pic.twitter.com/STc4JkKGw0
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) October 10, 2019
NBA commissioner Adam Silver is currently in Shanghai trying to salvage the league's relationship with China but it doesn't seem to be going great right now.
China has already blacklisted the Houston Rockets and have removed NBA signage from around the country.
Silver says the league will not prohibit players and other league personnel from expressing freedom of speech ... but this situation is certainly a doozy.