Woke NBA groveling for China

Disney

 

ESPN memo told shows to "avoid any political discussions about China and Hong Kong"

The Red Army buys tickets for Space Jam 2, too. It’s easy to be a civil rights activist when you have nothing to lose.

 

Polling, with Chinese characteristics.

 

SVP did a bit on it overnight, mentioning a couple of things we did here, like Charlotte losing the all-star game over the bathroom bill, as well as the NBA's higher visibility than other businesses.

 

Tentacles have hell of a reach from China.
Could be wrong but I've never seen comments disabled on any The Athletic stories except for these.
Daryl Morey, Joseph Tsai, the NBA and China: Why the...
How much does the NBA stand to lose in China over a tweet?

Coincidence I'm sure.

 

That super-patriotic conservative Americans are so suddenly interested in free speech regarding American business in China is great.

Or it's super-hypocritical.

Maybe both.

Silver defends NBA employees' right to free speech as China cancels broadcasts

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...sses-it-tries-cut-support-hong-kong-protests/

 

No there isn’t and, yeah, it is.

Marriott fired a guy for liking a tweet a Tibetian freedom group directed at Marriott.

Marriott Employee Roy Jones Hit ‘Like.’ Then China Got Mad

It’s not a hard thing. China has companies by the nuts and it doesn’t hesitate to squeeze.

Here’s that SVP segment from last night with Rachel Nichols - suddenly a reporter again (and always a good one) after years of shilling for celebrities - explaining how the few Chinese fans who dared welcome the Lakers *hid their faces* when NBA camera panned their way.

The twist here is it’s not a hotel chain but a worldwide superstar saying “We apologize. We love China.”

I’ll agree with you that Kerr doesn’t have to have an opinion and, indeed, can have any opinion he likes about the matter.

What Harden (and I guess Westbrook) did is another matter. Also, the NBA’s initial message to the Chinese, which differed from its English message, was that of a coward.

 

The story here wouldn’t be that the people you
Find awful are...still awful. Those folks were disqualified from your good person list for a million other things.

The story is the the great moral arbiters, the social justice sports league that deemed itself unable to play a game in a State because of a debate over unisex bathrooms, is furrowing its brow at the complexity of a human rights matter and the regret it has for hurting the feelings of fans.

Their clear immediate response was “dammit, why did Daryl have to make the fascists mad!”

 

Nah. I'm pretty happy with my position on freedom of expression and Chinese authoritarianism over the years.

But everyone suddenly complaining about the NBA sounds to me like an aggrieved event planner from the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

Hypocrisy! Gotcha!

Thanks for figuring out that China is terrible on free speech, though.

 

That's how it sounds to you, then.

It sounds to me like a dangerous shift in the progressive left, who we used to be able to count on to give a few shits about fascist dictatorships.

 

LeBron's opening a re-education camp in the Dunk-Chow province so he's covered.

But just so we are clear, the NBA, it's players and employees can't publically express an opinion about violation of human or civil rights in China, but if a player, fan or coach uses inappropriate words in the future about race, gender or sexual orientation they will be fined and or suspended.

It's like when Avery Brundage didn't want to insult Herr Hitler, so he kept Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller on the bench.

 

600 million people watch NBA games in China.

There are only 387 million people in the United States.

Money talks.