In October 2019,a tweet was sent out. It was simple and well-intentioned: "Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong."
If it was written by you or me, it would have been praised by our peers and quickly gotten lost in the sea of millions of tweets within the hour. But when you are Daryl Morey, the then-general manager of the Houston Rockets of the NBA, your words can affect markets, shift billions of dollars and create political precedence.
Today, I will touch on an aspect of the international nature of basketball that, although it is less appetizing, is still necessary to discuss.
Since 1984, China and Hong Kong have had the “one country, two systems” framework. Mainland China has a communist, one-party government, while Hong Kong has a democracy. China has continually attempted to impose restrictions on Hong Kong; however, one of these attempts erupted into a flurry of often violent protests in the summer of 2019 by Hong Kong residents attempting to fight for their autonomy.
Morey’s tweet was in support of these protests, and indirectly, China became involved.
China and the United States have always had a great basketball relationship. It picked up steam when Chinese-born Yao Ming was drafted first overall to the NBA in 2002. This caused the popularity of basketball in China to skyrocket, and it opened a potential multibillion-dollar market for the NBA due to China’s sheer population size. This meant more sold shoes and jerseys, more viewership and a diversification of the game that could transcend political differences.
With this budding relationship, the NBA started to play preseason games in China as well. In fact, during the time of this tweet, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets were getting set to play in Shanghai.
Whatensued after the tweet was a relationship with China that stood to lose a lot. The Chinese Central Television network, which is the main provider of NBA games, immediatelysuspended showing them. In addition, the Chinese Basketball Association, which is headed by Ming,suspended its relationship with the Rockets. What makes this worse is that Ming used to play for the Rockets, and for that reason, it is the most popular NBA team in China to this day.
The potential lost revenue share from Chinese viewership for the NBA as a result of the situation hasbeen estimated to be about $400 million. In addition, many partnerships and sponsorships with other Chinese companies such as Tenecent are worth more than abillion dollars.
Afraid to lose a large market and a good relationship with China, Moreydeleted his tweet, and the league and the Rockets apologized. In addition, the Rockets' James Hardenapologized and the Lakers’LeBron James cited Morey’s lack of knowledge as a reason to gloss over his tweet.
On the one hand, basketball’s ability to derive equal passion from people of different cultures and creeds is its single most powerful gift, something that I have shown repeatedly in this column. At what point do you need to stay firm in your values and take a stand? That is a question the NBA needs to think long and hard about if they want to continue to be considered a defender of human rights.
