Who got the NBA to “to shut up and dribble”? It was China in its most intimidating ways, as David Whitley wrote:
Amid all the preaching, would someone make a peep about a country that commits more human rights abuses in 10 minutes than the U.S. does in 10 years?
Don’t press your ears against the NBA’s bubble waiting for an answer.
The league officially declared it has no soul in October, when Houston general manager Daryl Morey sent one measly tweet supporting the democracy protests in Hong Kong.
The Chinese Communist Party started pulling NBA games off TV and merchandise off shelves. With its multibillion-dollar relationship threatened, the NBA quickly bowed in subservience and sent Morey to re-education camp.
Since then, the NBA has stayed mum as China ransacked all rights in Hong Kong, unleashed COVID-19 on the world and herded countless more Uighur Muslims onto trains bound for slave labor camps.
Yes, those guys in the NBA know who pays their salaries, or at least who will punish them if they don’t “shut up and dribble.”
Sadly, no one in the U.S. media will ask the players about that other country where reporters get thrown in jail when they actually practice journalism. They won’t ask about that other country where freedom protesters actually get beaten up for simply expressing themselves.
You won’t hear a word from LeBron James or the Warriors’ head coach or any of the others so eager to push their politics in your face.
So stop pretending, and let’s call then what they are: the Chinese Basketball Association. At least the players and league will confirm whom they are loyal to and scared of.
