Everyone is furious at the NBA.
People in China...
And in America.
This is China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
Well, I’m sorry to say,
the NBA has not made a slam dunk in China this week.
This is Daryl Morey.
You may know him as the general manager of the Houston Rockets.
But in China, he’s public enemy number 1!
Last week he tweeted this.
“Fight for freedom.
Stand with Hong Kong.”
A pretty bold move, considering NBA China—
yes that’s a thing—is worth more than 4 billion dollars.
But faster than you can say,
“good on him for risking a Chinese backlash
to stand up for liberty,”
he deleted the Tweet.
Because it created an uproar in China.
And the owner of the Houston Rockets was like,
whoa, this guy does not speak for us.
And Morey quickly walked his tweet back,
saying he did not intend his tweet to cause any offense
to Rockets fans and friends in China.
He’s got loads of friends in China.
None of whom support freedom in Hong Kong, obviously.
But the Houston Rockets damage control didn’t stop there.
One of their star players, James Harden,
announced the Houston Rockets Love China!
“We love China, we love...
We love everything they’re about
and appreciate the support they give us.”
Yes, the Houston Rockets love everything China’s about.
Here’s footage of Chinese police leading a group of Uighurs
into a concentration camp.
Side note, the NBA runs a training center in Xinjiang...
the same region where Chinese police
are putting all those Uighurs in concentration camps.
But back to the current NBA-China controversy.
The NBA itself issued an official apology,
saying that they recognized that the tweet
deeply offended fans in China,
which was regrettable.
But on their Chinese language social media account,
the statement was a little different.
It said, “We are extremely disappointed in the inappropriate comment
by the General Manager of the Houston Rockets...
he has undoubtedly seriously hurt
the feelings of Chinese basketball fans...
we have the utmost respect for the history and culture of China.”
Good thing no one outside China can read Chinese!
No one will ever know how spineless
the NBA’s Chinese apology was.
But Daryl Morey at least didn’t hurt the feelings
of *this* Chinese basketball fan,
who posted a photo of himself with a message saying,
“I live and die with the [Houston Rockets],
come arrest me.”
Three hours later, they did come arrest him.
“We love everything they’re about.”
So after all the back-tracking and kowtowing,
did the NBA manage to get cool with
the world’s most brutal authoritarian regime?
Nope.
The NBA’s Chinese partners still suspended ties with them.
And Chinese media won’t be broadcasting
the NBA’s preseason games in China.
What I’m saying is that the NBA is being cancelled in China.
That’s not surprising.
What is surprising,
is the universal condemnation the Rockets
are getting from both sides of the aisle in the United States.
Like Democratic Presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke
and Republican Senator Ted Cruz,
who until this week, never agreed on anything.
The NBA has spent years developing a huge fanbase in China.
But that doesn’t mean they can ignore the backlash in America.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver came out and unapologized-ish.
"We are not apologising for Daryl (Morey)
exercising his freedom of expression....
"The long held values of the NBA
are to support freedom of expression,
and certainly freedoms of expression by the NBA community,
and in this case Daryl Morey
as the General Manager of the Houston Rockets
enjoys that right as one of our employees.
What I also try to suggest is I understand
that there are consequences from that exercise of
in essence his freedom of speech,
and we will have to live with those consequences."
Now that may not seem like much, but remember,
China once got Marriott to apologize and fire an employee
for accidentally using the Marriott Twitter account
to like a Free Tibet tweet.
Obviously the real problem here is Twitter.
But the consequences of the NBA controversy are just beginning.
And they’re showing ordinary Americans
how much power the Chinese Communist Party
has on American companies...even in America.
For example, in an internal memo,
ESPN instructed their shows to
“avoid any political discussions about China and Hong Kong”
when discussing the NBA story.
And then fans who took Free Hong Kong signs to an NBA game
were kicked out—in Philadelphia.
And had their signs confiscated in Washington DC.
So now all because of one tweet about Hong Kong,
many Americans have gone from not knowing
that China has a Communist Party to realizing
how much power the Chinese Communist Party has.
In a not-good way.
So while China is crying foul,
perhaps in the end,
this was nothing but net.
The kind where you miss entirely and only hit net.
So what do you think?
Leave your comments below.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.