By Jack Rubin
Referee Tony Brown tossed the ball up, and the National Basketball Association’s season officially began in Toronto on Oct. 22, 2019. For Commissioner Adam Silver this moment was a godsend. He watched as a simple tweet sent his league into the middle of a human rights crisis and the center of massive internet outrage over the previous three weeks. Three hours later, Lebron James’ season tipped off in Los Angeles, effectively ending his involvement with the situation.
The NBA has kept quiet about the crisis in China that saw no real resolution on its end since the season’s opening. The hopeful ignorance that the public would forget what happened, alongside Lebron James’ comments and no visible public relations plan to deal with the Hong Kong situation demonstrates the NBA’s blatant hypocrisy when it comes to human rights issues. All that matters in the end is the profit.
Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted a simple message that created a hellacious three weeks for the NBA. His tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters’ fight for freedom against the Chinese government enraged the NBA. Despite support for human rights in Hong Kong being the popular global sentiment, the NBA stood firmly on the other side, quiet on the matter.
Morey was immediately demanded to delete the tweet supporting Hong Kong protesters, and the Rockets organization quickly publicly distanced themselves from Morey’s political views. A multitude of factors lead the NBA to this position, the biggest of them all being money.
China is the NBA’s second largest market behind the United States, and in a country where the government controls the media, the NBA had to act fast to reconcile the situation and keep its programming on Chinese televisions.
Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers were in the middle of a one- week trip to China, highlighted by two games in Shanghai and Shenzhen. China cancelled all player media appearances. The cities tore down NBA promotional banners. Player endorsement appearances, autograph signings, fan events – all cancelled. American media travelling with the teams were kept in the dark with no access to team officials. China was enraged by Morey’s tweet, and the NBA opted to side with a government that is oppressing thousands of people in labor camps while a city-state fights tyranny.
Yet again, it was all about the money.
The NBA might as well throw hypocrisy in with its corporate values. It would be difficult to find a more overt case of hypocritical behavior when comparing its handling of this human rights situation as opposed to issues in America in recent years. How does the NBA then justify cancelling the 2017 All-Star game in Charlotte?
The league stripped the city of Charlotte of one of the pinnacle events of the sport, an event that has a large influence on the economy of where it is hosted, over the H.B. 2 bill that affected far fewer people than the situations in China. H.B. 2 was extremely controversial, plus, restricting transgender bathroom use in certain buildings is undoubtedly much less of an offensethan interning Muslims in labor camps.
The games in China were not cancelled though, and the NBA will continue to profit. More points against the NBA are the comments of key figures, such as Lebron James,
Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr. All three have become more than just basketball players and coaches in their careers. They speak on political and social issues and people listen, praise and respect their arguments. After their comments on the Hong Kong crisis, James, Kerr and Popovich are nothing more than sanctimonious frauds.
All three made comments along the lines of Morey being “uneducated” on the matter or “misinformed.” James’ comments came as especially shocking given his past of speaking out against injustices in the United States. I suppose when it is all about the money, human rights violations do not matter anymore. It is hard to respect these opinions when James, Kerr and Popovich simply have to kneel and kiss the NBA crown.
The only possible counterargument to defend the fraudulent NBA would be that it could not afford to lose the Chinese market. It is a huge driving force in fan engagement and jersey sales. I believe that the NBA could have afforded to take a stand against China, even if it meant losing millions of people in viewership. A decision of that nature certainly would have avoided the PR crisis the league found itself in and the American public outrage that followed.
The NBA demonstrated that any concerns it previously showed about social issues were illegitimate with its handling of this China crisis. Blatant hypocrisy runs rampant from the commissioner, to the coaches, to the league’s best player. It is all about the money to the league. Shamefully, it just might escape the whole situation, as the season is well underway and professional basketball continues uninterrupted by its disrespect and denial of human rights issues in China.
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Works Cited
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-basketball-nba-fans-factbox/factbox-quotes-
from-basketball-fans-in-china-on-nba-controversy-idUSKBN1WO0XE
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/10/09/gregg-popovich-praises-adam-silver-courage-china-takes-dig-trump/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/china-cancels-media-events-for-nba-preseason-game
https://www.slamonline.com/nba/rockets-gm-daryl-morey-releases-statement-on-controversial-china-tweet/
https://www.nba.com/key-dates
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