NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expressed some serious regret over the recent cracks involving the league's relationship with China, the NBA's most lucrative partner. After Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's pro-Hong Kong tweet was met by the Chinese government with anger, Silver fears the ensuing financial consequences of this impasse will be “fairly dramatic,” according to Anjalee Khemlani of Yahoo Finance.

“I felt we had made enormous progress in building cultural exchanges with the Chinese people and I have regret that much of that is lost,” said Silver.

The Rockets have already lost all of their Chinese sponsors, which is a significant amount, considering they're the most popular team there since they drafted Yao Ming in 2002.

Yao himself, who serves as a chairman for the Chinese Basketball Association, was greatly offended and disappointed by Morey's tweet, which was an image that expressed a logo of support for those fighting to keep their freedom and democracy.

While owner Tilman Fertitta, star James Harden, and Silver were greatly apologetic at first as a reaction to China's disapproving statement, the NBA soon ensured to clarify that the league stood with Morey, respecting his right to freedom of speech, as they have done with athletes in the past.

Neither the Rockets nor the NBA have fined Morey, nor do they plan to — something the Chinese government has viewed as a radical difference in values.

Tencent, who signed a five-year, $1.5 billion deal with the league to livestream NBA games, at first suspended its broadcast of games, only to resume with two preseason games earlier this week. The multi-billion-dollar media company plans to resume the live streaming of NBA Games after next Thursday's season-opener, beginning again on Oct. 23. Until then, Tencent will only provide picture and score updates in the meantime.

The impact of a potential yanking of Chinese revenue would greatly affect the booming salaries of NBA players, which have reached record numbers recently. The change could be felt as soon as 2020, as the NBA could quickly turn to a cost-effective way to manage an expected downslope of earnings.