NBA favors human rights, until profits at risk
“Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”
This is hardly a controversial statement, especially not on the caustic and often profane platform of Twitter.
But these seven words ignited a firestorm of indignation, potentially destroyed millions in revenue, and revealed the shameful hypocrisy of both the National Basketball Association and corporate America in general.
After Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted that phrase (since deleted), China lashed out at him, his team and the NBA as a whole. The Chinese Basketball Association immediately ended “exchanges and cooperation” with the Rockets, the state broadcaster dropped their preseason games from the TV schedule, and Chinese corporations ended their many sponsorships.
Authoritarians are gonna authoritarian; no news there. But the groveling of both the Rockets and the NBA to the Chinese communists shocked fans on the left and right.
“We apologize,” Houston star James Harden said after a practice with teammate Russell Westbrook at his side. “For both of us individually, we go there once or twice a year. They show us the most important love. So we appreciate them as a fan base. We love everything there about them, and we appreciate the support that they give us individually and as an organization.”
The NBA prostrated themselves further, apologizing that the tweet “deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.”
The league might be woke in America but is fast asleep everywhere else.
Three years ago, North Carolina mandated that in government buildings, people must use bathrooms specific to their legal gender. The NBA was enraged, pulling the 2017 All Star Game from Charlotte, punishing the state over the scandal.
This shocking bathroom bill affecting dozens of North Carolinians had to be opposed. But when China incarcerated an estimated 1 million Uighurs in concentration camps? Look, they might not even provide bathrooms, so where’s the problem?
Poor Uighurs can’t afford Harden jerseys anyway.
Arizonans remember a similar treatment when Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 to limit illegal immigration. The home team quickly distanced itself with Suns owner Robert Sarver calling the bill “mean-spirited” and then-general Manager Steve Kerr comparing the state to “Nazi Germany.”
Instead of empathizing with the many Suns fans who agreed with the governor, NBA commissioner David Stern said, “we think it’s appropriate what the Suns are doing,”
China, despite having, let’s say, a more energetic opposition to immigration, gets a mewling apology from current commissioner Adam Silver.
Kerr, now the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, has long been quick to condemn his political opponents. His team has refused to visit the White House, as is customary for NBA champions and felt “disgusted and disappointed” by Trump’s election.
Surely, he must oppose the far worse Chinese government in this imbroglio. “It’s something I’m reading about just like everybody is,” Kerr said, “but I’m not going to comment further than that.”
Protesters in Hong Kong are risking their lives for freedom, but figures throughout the NBA won’t risk a fraction of their bank accounts to support them. Bashing Trump won’t prevent them from buying a new Bentley, but criticizing China might force a downgrade to a Mercedes Benz.
The only good to come from the league’s Communist kowtow is a rare unity among the American left and right. Presidential candidate Beto O’rourke tweeted, “The only thing the NBA should be apologizing for is their blatant prioritization of profits over human rights. What an embarrassment.”
His former Senate opponent Ted Cruz agreed. “In pursuit of big $$, the NBA is shamefully retreating.”
Jon Gabriel, a Mesa resident, is editor-in-chief of Ricochet.com and a contributor to The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, where this column originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter at @exjon.