The league’s official position is something like: we play basketball and don’t do politics.
As I’m sure you remember, the NBA, its coaches, and its players never had a problem previously with getting into politics, especially when the target was the police, the 2nd Amendment, or President Trump.
So what happened here?
The obvious reason is money. The NBA is booming in China, especially with the TV audience. I saw that it’s making over a billion dollars.
The second reason is that the NBA assumed that the government of China speaks for its people.
I don’t think that it does.
My good guess is that the Chinese communists are scared to death that “Hong Kong fever” will spread to the mainland. In other words, they don’t want anyone reminding the people of China that Hong Kong is crying out for freedom.
According to Freedom House, China is no place for human rights:
China’s authoritarian regime has become increasingly repressive in recent years.The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is tightening its control over the media, online speech, religious groups, and civil society associations while undermining already modest rule-of-law reforms.The CCP leader and state president, Xi Jinping, is consolidating personal power to a degree not seen in China for decades.
We can add the weak NBA to those who are giving in to repressive measures.
Shame on the NBA. I hope that U.S. fans show their anger and skip a game or two.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
