https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...urs-held-in-chinese-re-education-camps-report https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/01/...omeland-reporting-from-the-united-states.html https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/10/china-free-xinjiang-political-education-detainees https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/the-police-state-of-the-future-is-already-here You are the ridiculous one. Do you also deny the Holocaust?
Your right it isn’t his place and he didn’t say it BUT Harden is the face of the Houston Rockets. He is the franchise right now. So he is the spokesperson for the Rockets. How many Chinese fans know who morey is and how many know James is? It wasn’t even a real apology just a nice gesture to help smooth things over. Real mafia like style approach harden I like it. Basically saying look my guy messed up but we make a lot of money together let’s come up with a agreement and let’s move on and we will take care of our own for what he did.
The Rockets and the NBA and Morey have spoken themselves and have made clear their positions. When it comes to matters of morals and beliefs you can't talk for someone else. His "nice gesture" is an insult to Morey.
As Houstonians, does anyone feel disgusted that our star players, our execs etc cater to the interests of the Chinese government over actual Houstonians? I mean they made a Chinese themed jersey for the "City" edition jerseys. All the other franchises had cool jerseys taylored to the city and it's people.
I get the sense that 1) Harden caved to heavy adidas pressure and 2) He doesn’t fully understand what is happening in China. 3) He’s trying to protect Morey (and failing). Harden doesn’t strike me as the most politically aware guy. This is by far the worst offseason in recent memory.
Really disappointed in James here, but I feel like he just might not really understand the issue fully & the voices in his ear are talking Business, Business, Business. The seasoned players, and coaches like Pop & Kerr need to be speaking out more not necessarily to go as far as Morey did on this issue, but to make sure the NBA players & coaches make it crystal clear that we stand firmly behind free speech, and remind people that the NBA should keep American values first above oppressive regimes, and that profits cannot be all they stand for. I think it's unfair for Harden to be expected to be the voice here that sets the record straight. He's never been outspoken on social issues like Lebron, etc. have been, and I don't expect him to be comfortable being thrust in that spot now. But somebody needs to. Lebron, KD, Curry.... some of those guys need to get thoughtful responses here or else the league really sees no pressure internally for putting Chinese values & profits over the values of the country where 29 of the 30 teams are located.
Harden didn’t ask to be some martyr for something he knows nothing about no one is gonna die on this hill alongside Morey potentially losing millions it’s easy for us to sit here and scream “fck China” since none of us have anything to lose by doing so people pick and choose which atrocities they want to care about...if this was affecting another team, we’d get 1 thread in the DISH, 1 thread in the D&D, and the topic would be pretty much dead by the time opening night against the Bucks came around Are many other team forums, boards, and subreddits have any major discussion on this? Maybe the Nets because of Tsai, but who else? Harden was pressured into doing this, and it’s a shame because he’s not informed on the issue Does he know what he really just apologized for? Does he really know what’s happening in Hong Kong? No.
I didn't except Harden to be a vocal activist. But he even disappointed me in that metric by being a vocal activist in the opposite direction. He could have just stayed silent.
Then he could a) keep his mouth shut b) follow the nba line : We are sorry for hurting your sensibillities. He didn't do that.
Your missing the point to Chinese fans they don’t give a damn who Tillman is who morey is they know who harden is. Not saying they wanna hear from harden but when he says something to the Chinese I’m sure it carries more weight with their fans then it does with Tillman or morey.
The most obvious reason, he probably really loves China and dont give a crap about HK protesters. I mean yes the Chinese government does a lot of terrible stuff, but NBA stars are treated like kings there by people and the government.
The no.1 bball website nba reddit is full of threads on this issue filling the front page with pro Morey and pro democracy posts right now. It's the main topic of discussion for the average NBA fan. It was also in frontpage in the second most popular bball website realgm, until today the mods locked it. So yes people are paying attention no matter their team.
Agreed. I don't expect him to speak out because its just not his personality. I have to think that he was pushed to do so, and just doesn't really understand the issue going on in HK, and how the response from the NBA which panders to the Chinese Government is actually pretty damn offensive to American values. But RESPECT here isn't really a two way street in this occasion. Not sure Harden really understands that right now, but he might in the near future. I expect Harden will get less people like Tilman and his agent out of his ear in the coming days & more veteran players who educate him more on what the American side of things is, or what it would normally be & Harden will likely give a more thoughtful response later on.... because I'm 100% certain this issue isn't going away, and he'll be asked again by the American media who will frame the question a bit more around OUR values instead of how issues are framed in respect to the Chinese Government controlled narrative.
