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Crowe: NBA-China Spat Over Hong Kong, Free Speech, Hypocrisy and the Almighty Dollar

JT Crowe
Daryl Morey China NBA Adam Silver free speech

A simple tweet is all it took.

A single, simple tweet from an NBA executive last week launched what will be, in the years to come, a massive fight over big-business and big-money deals with the communist economic machine in China — a machine that has no use for the individual freedoms and free speech that Americans hold dear.

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey set off the international incident, costing the NBA millions — and potentially billions of dollars — by tweeting a simple, pro-Democracy sentiment in support of Hong Kong.

The sentiment is one that all freedom- and First Amendment-loving Americans should be behind:

“Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong,” is all Morey said in the now-deleted tweet.

The outcry from China was immediate and the Rockets GM was forced to apologize in two more tweets, which have since drawn more than 20,000 replies from all over the free world, mostly in support of Morey, free speech and Hong Kong.

The Rockets have been the NBA’s top franchise in China by miles and miles ever since its countryman, Yao Ming, starred in Houston from 2002 to 2011. Current Rockets star James Harden does huge business in China, and he also offered a meek apology.

And now, because of one freedom-supporting tweet, a number of Chinese businesses and the Chinese Basketball Association, headed by Ming, have cut ties with the Rockets. And online shopping retailers Alibaba and JD.com have removed Rockets gear from their sites.

Chinese state-run TV network CCTV, along with Tencent,which owns the NBA’s digital streaming rights in China, said they are suspending the broadcast of all preseason games. It’s unclear if the suspension will carry over into the regular season.

The kicker: The NBA and Tencent have a deal in place until the completion of the 2024-2025 season, worth $1.5 billion to the league.

“We can no longer watch Rockets games and any information about it has been banned,” high school student Yu Mingshan said during an interview with Reuters. “So I think lots of Rockets fans will be very sad. But of course, this matter involves state-level issues, so we can’t allow this (to go unpunished).”

In addition to Morey’s apology, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been pulling double duty damage control, trying to appease China’s leaders and upset fans while also fending off angry fans and politicians in the U.S.

“I think as a values-based organization that I want to make it clear: Daryl Morey is supported in terms of his ability to exercise his freedom of expression,” Silver said during an interview with Kyodo News in Japan.

CCTV blasted Silver’s sentiment because … that’s what communists and fascists do.

“We are strongly dissatisfied and we oppose Silver’s claim to support Morey’s right of free expression,” CCTV said in a statement. “We believe that any speech that challenges national sovereignty and social stability is not within the scope of freedom of speech.”

China, the NBA, Hypocrisy and the Almighty Dollar

U.S. citizens and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are infuriated by what they see as an attack on freedom of expression, and the NBA — the most “woke” sports league in the country — is bending over backward to appease communists for fear of losing money.

You see, Silver has said in the past that “political speech” is the players’ “absolute right within the league,” as many have spoken out against U.S. President Donald Trump and in favor of movements like Black Lives Matter.

Whether you agree with those sentiments or not, that’s fine — it’s their prerogative to say what they want in a free country like the United States.

Unless of course that “political speech” has anything to do with China’s Communist Party, the biggest threat to freedom in the world because of the economic clout Beijing wields as the second-largest economy with a massive consumer population.

For more evidence of hypocrisy, look no further than Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, a frequent, outspoken critic of Trump who said his players were “disgusted and disappointed” by his election win in 2016.

However, when asked about the issue with China, Kerr basically said “no comment.”

That’s not exactly “woke” …

The NBA’s hypocrisy has brought Republican and Democratic lawmakers together, with senators like Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., among others, speaking out forcefully.

Wall Street Fallout and Future Implications

The greater issue at hand beyond the NBA-China spat is something that will plague all U.S. companies that want to do business in China for years to come: how they’ll handle free speech in the U.S. against Beijing’s communist backdrop.

It’s not just the NBA that’s in the news in regard to Hong Kong, and it’s already happening in TV, video games and esports.

“South Park,” a Comedy Central show that has aired in the U.S. for 23 years, was scrubbed from all major platforms in China after a recent episode, called “Band in China,” taunted Chinese censors.

After the ban and unlike the cowering NBA, the show’s creators delivered a tongue-in-cheek “apology” that made fun of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“Like the N.B.A., we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts,” a statement read. “We too love money more than freedom and democracy. Xi doesn’t look just like Winnie the Pooh at all.”

And over the weekend, a professional Hearthstone Grandmasters competitor, Chung Ng Wai, who goes by the gamertag “blitzchung,” appeared on the official Taiwanese Hearthstone game stream for an interview after a match. He removed his mask, which many Hong Kong protesters wear, and shouted in Chinese: “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!”

And what did that statement calling for freedom get him? A one-year ban from Hearthstone competition and the nullification of his winnings, about $10,000, from the the game’s ongoing second season.

Who made the decision to ban him and take his winnings for speaking out?

American video game company Blizzard, which is now facing a boycott of all its games from freedom-loving gamers the world over (of which you can count the author of this piece as one).

Blizzard, which reportedly made $173 million from the Asia Pacific region last year, about 12% of its worldwide revenue, said the statement was a breach of a broad tournament rule that allows the company to ban players for acts that, “in Blizzard’s sole discretion,” hurt the company’s image.

Guess where the company’s image was hurt.

Yep, China.

This is just the beginning of a culture clash cold war between the world’s two largest economies that could last for decades.

And it was all set off by a simple tweet in support of freedom.

Editor’s note: Should the NBA (and other U.S. companies) bend over backward to appease China’s communist leaders? Share your thoughts below.