By now "freedom of speech" has been replaced by the official NBA position of "All you coaches and players are entitled to your own opinions, but for the good of the league, here's how you should answer questions about China."
That's fine, but it's also understandable that one might expect Steve Kerr to honor what his father died for. I don't know the story, but if my dad died for free speech and I chose not to speak for freedom of speech afterwards.. I'd feel hollow inside.
I'm quite surprised he said this. Harden is easily Adidas' top athlete in China. He's really big part of their marketing campaign there. I honestly didn't expect him to really speak up in support of Silver when he clearly look like he doesn't have an opinion on this whole issue in general. I am proud of what he did, even if this will probably hurt his wallet quite a bit.
Harden is only doing this because he owes Silver a favor. Silver was like "James, I made your move, that's clearly a travel, not a travel, you owe me! I even had the league attack Curry for you." Silver had him by the beards.
Steve Kerr has always been a fraud. So his wishy washy words are unsurprising. Compare that with Popovich's comments. People need to stop associating Kerr with Popovich. There are differences.
Kerr regurgitates the California bubble of things. As a person who has views that mirror some of that, I don't mind when he does, but he does it with no fear of consequence. To say something now, especially when Disney is breathing down the necks of the NBA, would take courage. That's not a trait I find that Kerr has.
