The NBA: Groveling before China
The NBA encourages players and coaches to take progressive political stands—“unless, apparently, the autocratic leaders of a lucrative market raise a stink,” said Daniel Victor in NYTimes.com. With NBA teams in China this month for preseason exhibitions, Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted, “Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” The Rockets—China’s favorite team since Houston drafted 7-foot-6 legend Yao Ming—promptly threw Morey under the bus for angering the mainland, which views Hong Kong’s prodemocracy demonstrators as “violent rioters.” The NBA’s apology in Chinese read, “We are deeply disappointed about Morey’s inappropriate comment.” The apology wasn’t enough for China, and its TV network canceled broadcasts of NBA preseason games. The league’s groveling drew bipartisan disgust, with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) accusing league executives of “kowtowing to Beijing to protect their bottom line.”
Sorry, but appeasing China is the cost of doing business there, said Tyler Cowen in Bloomberg .com. When Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta tweeted, “We are NOT a political organization,” he was right. “The NBA is committed to a major expansion in China,” where it has more than
500 million fans and a new, $1.5 billion broadcasting deal. It’s entirely reasonable for the NBA, “like any other business,” to ask employees to avoid political commentary that alienates partners or customers. Hundreds of U.S. businesses operate in China, said Brian Boyle in the Los Angeles Times, and they all have to bend to China’s demands and ignore their human rights abuses. Hollywood, for example, censors films to cater to China’s authoritarian standards. When billions of dollars are at stake, businesses will do what China wants—“the citizens of Hong Kong be damned.” U.S. businesses that deal with China are now at a moral crossroads, said Michael Brendan Dougherty in NationalReview.com. “Free trade with China has certain conditions attached,” and it’s been shocking to see how quickly and easily “Chinese authoritarianism is able to spread into American life through corporate power.” Just look at Rockets star James Harden rushing to defuse his boss’s statement by saying, “We apologize. We love China.” Harden, one of the top earners in U.S. pro sports, speaks for many among “the American business elite,” said Rich Lowry in the New York Post. They’ll “flaunt” their “woke social conscience” so long as any activism involved is “costless.”