In case you aren’t watching, the NBA opened its regular season on Tuesday night. And don’t tell commissioner Adam Silver, but the games were not aired on China’s state-run television networks.
Chinese state television did not air the NBA’s opening night games Tuesday, and the league’s streaming partner, Tencent, reduced its schedule and showed just the Lakers-Clippers contest.
ESPN
Here’s another thing not to tell Adam Silver: There were protests outside of the Staples Center in Los Angeles on opening night. Yes, where LeBron James’ team, the Lakers, were playing.
Outside that game at Staples Center in Los Angeles, a group of protesters chanted and offered fans T-shirts that read: “Fight For Freedom Stand For Hong Kong.” A smattering of fans wore them inside Staples during the game.
ESPN
This, of course, is the communist nation’s retribution for Houston Rockets owner Daryl Morey’s tweet featuring an image that said, “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong.” His tweet was in support of those who are struggling to overcome an oppressive government that is sending human beings to concentration camps where they are subject to rape, torture and other ghastly human “experiments.”
Opposing this is clearly not OK with the league’s tastemakers, such as Silver and LeBron James.
Here is how Silver explained away his league’s continued lovefest with China in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Respectfully, Mr. commissioner, when you read, do you read the accounts of people who have been in the Chinese camps? Or are you isolating yourself from engaging in that?
There is a lesson the NBA and everyone should take away from this development, and it is about communism. When someone dares to dissent, as Morey did with just one tweet, the full weight and power of almighty government is brought to bear upon that person or entity. By refusing to broadcast the games, China is showing its communist self to be the authoritarian, freedom-quenching place it likes to pretend it’s not.
Many of us who enjoy a nation that has a Bill of Rights guaranteeing the freedoms of speech and assembly probably take such luxuries for granted in other parts of the world. But, as we can clearly discern from this, China’s values are far different from ours.
Yes, the NBA looks foolish after bending over backward trying to distance themselves from Morey’s tweet. But that’s what happens when you get in bed with communists. This was avoidable. The NBA should have known better.
References used: Fox News, Wall Street Journal and Haaretz
Hat tips to ESPN and Yahoo! Sports