N.B.A. Commissioner Commits to Free Speech

China’s state-run television canceled broadcasts of two preseason games scheduled to be held in the country this week, and Adam Silver issued an emphatic defense of the right of league employees to speak out on political issues.

By Sopan Deb

Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.

The N.B.A.’s decades-long push to develop China into its biggest overseas market appeared in jeopardy on Tuesday as the league’s commissioner stood firm in the face of criticism from Beijing and the Chinese threatened financial repercussions.
The threats began when China’s state-run television announced it would not broadcast two N.B.A. preseason games this week in Shanghai and Shenzhen that would feature basketball’s biggest star, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers. 

Hours later, the league’s commissioner, Adam Silver, issued an emphatic defense of its employees’ right to speak out on political issues.
That followed days of intense criticism accusing Silver of trying to appease one of the world’s most autocratic governments after a Houston Rockets executive tweeted support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. 

“We will protect our employees’ freedom of speech,” Silver said.
The N.B.A. has made global expansion — particularly into China — a core part of its mission. 

The preseason games are part of a set of events designed to promote the league in the country — including basketball clinics, fan gatherings and various public appearances by players.
But the league’s Chinese campaign has been overshadowed by the single pro-Hong Kong tweet on Friday night from Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Rockets, who shared an image that contained the words “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.” 

The phrase is a popular slogan at the protests in Hong Kong that have raged for months.

The tweet put the league in a situation familiar to many global companies seeking to do business in a Communist country with 1.4 billion people: Any misstep could mean swiftly losing access to a powerful economy.
China Central Television, the state broadcaster, made clear the risks of challenging Beijing, chiding the league for an earlier expression of support for Morey’s free speech rights.

At a news conference in Japan — where the Rockets played the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday — Silver said that the Chinese broadcast cancellation was unexpected and that a community outreach event scheduled to take place at a school in Shanghai had also been canceled.
“I think it’s unfortunate,” Silver said. 

“But if that’s the consequences of us adhering to our values, we still feel it’s critically important we adhere to those values.”

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey, left, as the team announced the signing of the star guard Russell Westbrook in July.

Silver planned to travel to Shanghai on Wednesday and said he hoped to meet with Chinese government officials to try to defuse the conflict.

“But I’m a realist as well, and I recognize that this issue may not die down so quickly,” Silver said.

Both Democrats and Republicans have castigated the league for its initial reaction to the situation: a statement on Sunday that said it was “regrettable” that Morey’s tweet had offended people in China. The N.B.A. also said that “the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them.”
Silver responded again on Tuesday morning with a statement that said: “It is inevitable that people around the world — including from America and China — will have different viewpoints over different issues. It is not the role of the N.B.A. to adjudicate those differences.”
The statement continued: “However, the N.B.A. will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues. We simply could not operate that way.”
Chinese government and basketball officials, as well as Chinese companies, had pressured the N.B.A. to be more critical of Morey, and to go beyond a version of the league’s statement that appeared on Chinese social media platforms on Sunday. 

In that statement, the league appeared to call Morey’s tweet “inappropriate.” (The league denied that the difference in translation was intentional and said the English version should be considered its official response.)

An N.B.A. store in Beijing.

Despite the controversy, as of Tuesday, the preseason games had not been canceled, even though they would not be broadcast in China. 

The Lakers were scheduled to play the Brooklyn Nets, a team owned by Joe Tsai, the billionaire co-founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. 

In a lengthy Facebook post this week, Tsai criticized Morey’s tweet as damaging to the N.B.A. in China. 

Also, an editorial in the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, carried the headline: “Sports loses out when politics enters play.”


Sopan Deb
✔@SopanDeb
UPDATE: Per NBA spokesman, Mike Bass: "There should be no discrepancy on the statement issued earlier today. We have seen various interpretations of the translation of the Mandarin version, but our statement in English is the league’s official statement.”
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7:10 AM - Oct 7, 2019

Multiple Chinese companies, including Luckin Coffee and Anta, a sportswear brand that sponsors N.B.A. players, announced Tuesday that they were suspending partnerships with the league.

Criticism of the N.B.A. also has come from pro-Hong Kong activists and their supporters in the United States, who have accused Silver of capitulating to an authoritarian government.
Silver, in an interview with CNN after his news conference on Tuesday, hinted at frustration over the way the league’s actions have been received.
“I will say I’m a bit surprised that CCTV canceled the telecasting of preseason games, and specifically named me as the cause,” Silver said. 

“It’s interesting, while at the same time in the U.S. media, there is some suggesting I am not being protective enough of our employees. Clearly, they’re seeing it the other way in China, but I think, at the end of the day, we have been pretty consistent.”
The backlash hasn’t been limited to Silver and Morey. 

The Rockets superstar James Harden was criticized on social media for offering an apology to China while standing next to his teammate Russell Westbrook.
Other basketball figures have steered clear of the topic. 

Steve Kerr, the typically outspoken coach of the Golden State Warriors, declined to comment on Monday, telling reporters, “It’s a really bizarre international story, and a lot of us really don’t know what to make of it.”
One notable exception was another outspoken coach, Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs. 

He praised Silver’s remarks, saying: “He came out strongly for freedom of speech today. I felt great again. He’s been a heck of a leader in that respect and very courageous. Then you compare it to what we’ve had to live through the past three years, it’s a big difference. A big gap there, leadership-wise and courage-wise.”
DeAndre Jordan of the Nets told ESPN that it was unfortunate for events to be canceled, but that the players aren’t experts on Hong Kong.
“What we are experts in is basketball, and we wanted to come here to promote basketball and see all of our fans in China,” Jordan said.