[ESPN]Post-HK, Daryl forced to eat alone at NBA GM Mean Girls cafeteria

No team has felt the brunt of the fallout more than the Rockets. League sources say the franchise has lost more than $7 million in revenue this season from cancelled Chinese sponsorship agreements and nearly $20 million overall when terminated multiyear deals are calculated.

Previous Rockets owner Leslie Alexander was able to parlay the Rockets' presence in China into numerous investment opportunities, from wine distribution to the Chinese auto aftermarket. The friction between the NBA and China could temper any ambitions his successor, Tilman Fertitta, has to expand his portfolio into China after paying $2.2 billion for the team in 2017. For their superstar James Harden, the losses could be considerable if no resolution is reached. A source says Harden's endorsement agreement with Shanghai's SPD Bank Credit Card is imperiled.

[...]

AS AN EXECUTIVE who values digital platforms as a means to communicate with the world, Morey hired a Chinese firm a few years ago to help him manage his social media accounts in the country, including Weibo. That company dropped Morey as a client immediately following his tweet. Soon after, security consultants advised Morey to install advanced protective software on all of his devices and change his passwords to maximum strength.

When Morey reached out to a number of friends from Hong Kong soon after the story exploded, a few were too petrified to speak to him. Others, including some friends stateside who were concerned about surveillance and hacking, instructed him to install secure apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal. One of Morey's closer friends from Hong Kong had his attorney return Morey's call on his behalf. The lawyer, who declined to offer his name when contacted by ESPN, told Morey that all communication should be channeled through him until further notice.

[...]

Few of Morey's colleagues around the NBA were surprised by his post. Most fellow execs saw Morey's decision to comment on Twitter about the conflict between Hong Kong and Beijing as consistent with his behavior during his 13 years as Rockets GM.

This is a general manager who, after all, took the unusual tack over the summer of submitting to the NBA a signed, executed player contract between the Rockets and Nene laden with questionable incentives, daring the league to reject it. The NBA office, miffed that the Rockets didn't check about the deal's legality ahead of time, chose to amend the contract on its own -- quickly diminishing the valuable trade chip Morey was hoping to manufacture. The episode was another instance of Morey testing limits as one of the league's most aggressive general managers.

In contrast, conversations with nearly a dozen NBA front-office executives show that most have an acute allergy to this specific conflict with China.

"I honestly just try to stay away from it," one NBA team exec said. "It's like watching my dog vomit."

[...]

Though a couple of NBA executives speculated Morey might have greater difficulty attracting marquee free agents to Houston, few said that his ability to perform his job would be affected beyond having to placate Fertitta, a shotgun marriage that sources close to the Rockets have considered a tenuous fit since Fertitta bought the team in 2017.

None of the executives doubted Morey's interest in the political issue in question, but almost all of them suggested that Morey would figure out how to leverage the ordeal into a net positive for himself. Several noted that, in recent years, Morey has immersed himself in so many disparate pursuits -- the Sloan conference, theater production, Silicon Valley, techno-activism -- that his impulses are best interpreted as groundwork for his next big thing.

 

Hmm maybe think of it as luxury tax if that helps.

 

Stand with Freedom. Vote Morey.

 

......Dmo said....some guys always eat. Alone.

 

I want to see what deals, if any, Morey is able to pull off this year. Will teams that deal with the Rockets also be punished further by Chinese businesses?

 

I think half the businesses are returned to normal.....this had to blow over one or the other way.

 

hard to pull off deals when u have no assets

also, no team in the NBA was as dependent on China as the Rockets

 

Need to start a Daryl Morey 2020 write-in campaign

 

“So I gotta sit here alone and eat dessert like I’m fkn Steven glansberg?”

 

Les hired Morey so it’s his fault. The Chinese should boycott all Les Alexander interests (until he gives us back our trophies).

 

Pffffffffttt...more cheeseburgers for Mr.Morley!!!
FTW!!!

 

Good article that answers the question about what went on with Morey behind the scenes during that first week after his tweet.

Also gets into his motivation for the tweet as well. The writer has a source who has extensive knowledge of a two-person conversation between Morey and Ujiri. Hmm...

 

The article says that Ujiri spent a few hours talking to him. So that doesn’t jive with the “forced to eat alone” title. I did find it interesting that Morey feels he has never been that popular with other GMs. I’ve picked up on that as well.

 

Pretty sure OP didn't mean that literally.

 

Good, more space for double chin Darryl to put his extra trays of food.

 

That's not fetch

 

Stop trying to make fetch happen.