NBA game to go ahead in China

Top basketball league rejects calls to scrap event over free speech row

SHANGHAI: The NBA confirmed an annual exhibition game in China would go ahead, rejecting calls to scrap the event over a free speech row that was ignited by an American basketball executive’s pro-democracy tweet.

Superstar LeBron James is set to lead his Los Angeles Lakers against the Brooklyn Nets in Shanghai, the first of two pre-season matches held each year to build on the league’s already huge popularity in China.

An intense Chinese backlash against the world’s top basketball league – triggered by a Houston Rockets executive’s tweet last week in support of Hong Kong’s democracy movement – had thrown the games and the NBA’s larger interests in China into doubt.

In an open letter, a bipartisan set of US lawmakers urged the NBA on Wednesday to suspend all activities in China until Chinese firms and broadcasters end their various boycotts of the league over the controversy.

China already had yanked away the welcome mat, with broadcasters cancelling plans to air the two pre-season games and Chinese NBA sponsors severing ties in protest.

Crews on Wednesday also tore down giant promotional banners showing James and other evidence of the match throughout Shanghai, as Chinese netizens called for the games to be scrapped.

However, the NBA confirmed yesterday the Shanghai game would go ahead.

“The Lakers and the Nets will face each other in the NBA China game in Shanghai beginning tonight at 1930,” the NBA said on its verified Chinese social media account.

Although Chinese netizens called for fans to shun the league, a broader protest campaign on China’s government-controlled Internet is yet to take root.

And there has been no suggestion yet that popular broadcasts in China of the NBA’s upcoming regular season are in jeopardy.

After a video of fans waiting for players at their Shanghai hotel was posted to leading social media platform Weibo, a related hashtag quickly became one of the country’s most viewed on Thursday.

Responses were overwhelmingly critical of the NBA and its loyal Chinese fans, but many others called for cooler heads.

“James and many players are always good idols but the NBA needs to be responsible for what they said and did,” one post said.