Slandering the President of the United States or bullying a state over transgender madness is acceptable, even praiseworthy in the most woke pro league. Running the risk of offending brutal Chinese dictators is not. The league quickly came down on the Rockets GM when he made a fairly innocuous statement supporting the Hong Kong protestors. The league then issued a groveling apology to the Chinese, emphasizing how they do not want to meddle in other people's business. LOL tell that to the state of NC. For once, the sports media stood up to their favorite league. A sampling of commentary. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ina-nba-tencent-apology-twitter-a9146211.html "Groveling apology" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/sports/basketball/nba-china-hong-kong.html By Daniel Victor Published Oct. 7, 2019Updated Oct. 9, 2019, 1:34 a.m. ET HONG KONG — The N.B.A. superstar LeBron James has routinely insulted President Trump. Two of the league’s most successful coaches, Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich, have repeatedly slammed American lawmakers for inaction on gun legislation. And other basketball stars regularly speak out on social and political issues — police shootings, elections and racism — without fear of retribution from the league. But this weekend, a Houston Rockets executive unwittingly exposed an issue that may have been too much for the National Basketball Association: support for protesters in Hong Kong, which infuriated China. “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” read an image posted on Twitter by Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Rockets. It was quickly deleted. But the damage was done, and the N.B.A. quickly moved to smooth things over in a lucrative market that generates millions of dollars in revenue. The league said it was “regrettable” that many Chinese fans were offended by the comment. On Tuesday, Silver tried again to limit the impact, saying that the league’s initial statement had left people “angered, confused or unclear on who we are or what the N.B.A. stands for.” “It is inevitable that people around the world — including from America and China — will have different viewpoints over different issues,” he said in a new statement. “It is not the role of the N.B.A. to adjudicate those differences.” The stakes are particularly high for the N.B.A. in China. Tencent Holdings, a Chinese tech conglomerate, reported that 490 million people watched N.B.A. programming on its platforms last year, including 21 million fans who watched Game 6 of the 2019 N.B.A. finals. By comparison, Nielsen measured 18.3 million viewers for the game on the American network ABC. The league recently announced a five-year extension of its partnership with Tencent to stream its games in China for a reported $1.5 billion. Echoing China’s worldview, especially as it relates to its sovereignty over disputed territories, is considered a cost of doing business there, for both entertainers and companies. Gap was forced to apologize in 2017 after selling a shirt that featured a map of China that did not include Taiwan, a self-governing island off its southern coast. The Marriott International hotel chain apologized in January 2018 for listing Tibet, a region of western China, and Taiwan as countries in a customer survey. In February 2018, the German automaker Daimler apologized for using a quotation from the Dalai Lama, who is widely viewed as a Tibetan separatist in China, in a social media post from its Mercedes-Benz brand. In March 2018, China demanded that international airlines refer to Taiwan as part of China in their online booking systems, a request mocked by the White House as “Orwellian nonsense” but eventually obeyed by all major carriers. Movie studios frequently find themselves at odds with state censors in a country where notions of free expression do not apply but billions of dollars ride on international success. Crystal Yifei Liu, its Chinese-American star, prompted dueling backlash in the United States and China by supporting a crackdown on protesters by Hong Kong police. Disney, which had no comment, has inched forward in its positioning in China for decades, leading to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland in 2016 and spectacular results for films like the recent “Avengers: Endgame,” which took in $858 million in the United States and $614 million in China earlier this year. Last year, Chinese moviegoers bought an estimated $8.87 billion in movie tickets, up 9 percent from a year earlier, according to box office analysts. For its part, the N.B.A. has weathered outrage in China before. Last year, J.J. Redick, then of the Philadelphia 76ers, recorded a video for the Chinese New Year in which he appeared to use a racial slur for Chinese people, which he later said was an unintentional verbal slip. He apologized, but was roundly booed when he touched the ball during preseason games in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Claire Fu, Sopan Deb, Julie Creswell and Brooks Barnes contributed reporting. LOL, even Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...l-morey-nba-hong-kong-houston-rockets-895706/ The NBA Chooses China’s Money Over Hong Kong’s Human Rights Daryl Morey is now being forced to apologize because he… supports Democracy?
I bet you didn't think China's reach extended to US sports arenas, no doubt paid for by taxpayer give-aways to billionaire owners. Well, you'd be wrong. You can kneel when the US National Anthem is being played, but by golly you better show some fucking respect to China. https://www.inquirer.com/sixers/sixers-fan-ejected-hong-kong-protest-china-sam-wachs-20191009.html Sixers fan: I was ejected from Wells Fargo Center for pro-Hong Kong protest at game against Chinese team A Philadelphia 76ers fan says he was ejected from the Wells Fargo Center after holding up signs and shouting in support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong during the NBA team’s exhibition game Tuesday night against the Guangzhou Loong-Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association. Sam Wachs and his wife were sitting just rows behind the visitors’ bench when, early in the first quarter, they held up green fluorescent poster paper signs with “Free Hong Kong” and “Free HK” inscribed on them. Wachs said in an interview that security guards took the signs away and then ejected the couple after he shouted “Free Hong Kong” midway through the second quarter. The Sixers and Wells Fargo Center said in separate statements the couple were escorted out of the arena because they were disruptive and others around them were complaining. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...m-a-game-in-philly-for-yelling-free-hong-kong As the NBA deals with fallout from a team executive’s tweet supporting the Hong Kong protesters, a fan in Philly was booted from a Sixers game for expressing a similar sentiment. Sam Wachs told WPVI-TV he and his wife were ejected from a preseason game at the Wells Fargo Center Tuesday night — a matchup between the Philadelphia 76ers and China’s Guangzhou Loong-Lions — after he yelled “Free Hong Kong” and the pair held up signs supporting Hong Kong in its struggle against China's encroachment. The signs were confiscated by security. "[They said] there's no foul language, no politics. I asked why not. They said, 'Don't give me a hard time," Wachs told the local ABC affiliate station. Wachs said it was after he yelled “Free Hong Kong” that they got ejected. "I think it's a shameful, harsh reaction," he told WPVI-TV. Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have demonstrated for months over fears of Beijing’s increasing influence over the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. The incident in Philly comes right on the heels of a pro-Hong Kong tweet from the Houston Rockets GM that sparked an international incident and an uncomfortable situation for the NBA, which has massive business interests in mainland China. Daryl Morey simply tweeted, then quickly deleted: “Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” By Monday that tweet had sparked a standoff between China and the NBA, as the Chinese Basketball Association, Tencent Sports, and other brands dropped ties with Houston’s franchise. The Rockets had previously been the most popular team with Chinese fans, who started following the franchise when it drafted star Yao Ming in 2002. READ: One tweet from the Rockets’ GM proved just how desperate the NBA is for China’s money The NBA has said it supports Morey’s right to free speech while dancing around the issue of the protests in Hong Kong. There’s a lot of money tied up in China. "There is no doubt, the economic impact is already clear," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told reporters Tuesday. "There have already been fairly dramatic consequences from that tweet, and I have read some of the media suggesting we are not supporting Daryl Morey, but in fact we have.” NBA events scheduled to take place in China this week have been cancelled and Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said it won’t air two preseason games scheduled to be played in the country. READ: Blizzard's Hong Kong screw-up is officially an international incident And the NBA isn’t the only sporting league dealing with outrage this week over how it has handled an issue with China. Activision Blizzard has come under fire after it suspended e-sports pro Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai for supporting Hong Kong protesters during a post-match interview. Prominent U.S. politicians have gone after both the NBA and Blizzard, saying they’ve buckled under Chinese pressure. “Blizzard’s decision to censor a player who voiced support for the Hong Kong protests is part of a profoundly disturbing trend by American entities like the NBA bending over backward to appease the Chinese government,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden told VICE. “China’s repression of peaceful dissent is disgusting when it happens in China, but it is incredibly disturbing that American companies would willingly participate in the Chinese government’s propaganda campaign."
Never make the mistake of believing things like this are about morality. It doesn't matter if you're selling athletic apparel, razors, or a professional sport. It all comes down to money.
The Columbia Bugle @ColumbiaBugle 21h21 hours ago Tucker Carlson on NBA Caving to China: "Steve Kerr is a phony. He's brave when crowds applaud, but when money is at stake he shuts up & obeys like the cowardly little corporate stooge that he is. It's hard to imagine how a man like that can look himself in the mirror at night."
Who cares? The product the NBA puts out is awful. The games are unwatchable. Who is the worst group of people, the Golden State Warriors or the US Women's Soccer Team?
NBA did seem pussyish in their apology over a weeks tweat. But why cannot NBA players criticize Trump..this is still America isn't it?
I stopped watching team sports some time ago, a couple of years actually. The whole lot of them are self-indulgent, ungrateful and unworthy of my admiration.