Chinese cry foul at NBA manager’s tweet for Hong Kong protesters

THE Houston Rockets basketball team is facing a backlash from China after the club’s general manager tweeted his support for the protests in Hong Kong.

Daryl Morey ignited controversy on Friday by sharing an image on Twitter which was captioned: “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” He soon deleted the message and team owner, Tillman Fertitta, quickly distanced the Rockets from Mr Morey’s tweet.

However, the shoe company Li Ning and the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank both said that they are now “pausing their partnerships” with the Rockets. And the Chinese Basketball Association said it was suspending cooperation with the team.

The Chinese consulate in Houston issued a statement expressing anger at the tweet and America’s National Basketball Association (NBA) described Mr Morey’s statement as “regrettable” in having “deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China”.

Basketball is hugely popular in China, and highly profitable for the NBA, the sport’s governing body in the United States. Furthermore, the current president of the Chinese Basketball Association is Yao Ming, who played for the Rockets from 2002 to 2011. Yao’s NBA success made the Rockets a favourite among Chinese fans. The timing of the row over the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong is awkward for the NBA, with two of its most celebrated teams, the LA Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets, to travel to China this week for two exhibition games.

Joseph Tsai, the new co-owner of the Nets and the co-founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, attempted to make amends by describing Mr Morey as being ill-advised.

He referred to the protests, which have caused tension between the former British colony of Hong Kong and Beijing since they began in March, as a “separatist movement”, a common sentiment in China but a label the demonstrators are keen to shrug off.