NBA players silenced at pre-season tilt in China
WASHINGTON The Chinese government didn’t allow players and coaches from the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets to talk with reporters before or after Thursday’s pre-season game in Shanghai, the latest salvo in an increasingly contentious situation between the NBA and China that began last week when the Houston Rockets’ general manager tweeted his support of protesters in Hong Kong.
The game was played as scheduled, though the Nets’ 114-111 win wasn’t seen on television in China. The country’s state broadcaster announced Tuesday it wouldn’t air any of the NBA pre-season games being played in the country this week (the Lakers and Nets play again on Saturday in Shenzhen).
According to the Athletic’s Bill Oram, who is in Shanghai, a pregame news conference with NBA commissioner Adam Silver also was scrubbed. The Chinese government previously had cancelled an NBA Cares event to benefit the Special Olympics in Shanghai, along with a fan event ahead of the game. Banners promoting Thursday’s game also were taken down.
Neither the U.S. nor the Chinese national anthems were played before the game, The Associated Press reported, though the contest did draw a near-sellout crowd to Mercedes-Benz Arena.
The Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors also played in Asia on Thursday, a 118-111 Rockets win in Tokyo.
Afterward, CNN reporter Christina McFarlane attempted to ask Houston stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook whether they would feel differently about speaking out on social issues after this week’s events. McFarlane’s question was interrupted by an official who said she could ask “basketball questions only.”
McFarlane said neither of the players answered her question.
Last Friday, Houston GM Daryl Morey’s tweets about protesters in Hong Kong drew condemnation in mainland China and led several Chinese companies to suspend ties with the franchise, even after Morey apologized. Reuters reported Thursday that all Rockets gear had been pulled from several Nike stores in mainland China.
The NBA’s initial attempt to tamp down the issue was viewed as overly deferential to China, with which it has a long and financially fruitful relationship. In a second statement Tuesday, Silver declared his support for the free speech rights of the league’s players and executives, which drew the ire of the Chinese government.
“We are not apologizing for Daryl exercising his freedom of expression,” Silver said Tuesday at a news conference in Japan.
Nearly all of the NBA’s Chinese business partners have publicly announced they are ending or suspending their relationships with the league.
Protests have taken place at several exhibition games in the U.S., as well. On Tuesday, a married couple was removed from a game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Guangzhou Loong-Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association after they held up signs reading “Free Hong Kong” and “Free HK” and then shouted the slogans when their signs were taken away by security.
Wednesday night, at least five vocal demonstrations broke out before and during the first half of the Wizards’ matchup against the Loong-Lions in Washington.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a man wearing a Rockets jersey was arrested in China for posting a photo of himself about to burn a Chinese flag with a comment: “I live and die with the team.”