Just as a reminder: Our sitting president just the other day asked this same government to get involved in our democratic elections. I know that's a D&D topic, but highly relevant to contrast what we see here, and seeing what the involvement of their cyber capabilities can do to affect our country on a whim. This was simply a Daryl Morey tweet. It was then twisted in the translation & then the outcome has been a complete international crisis.
This is actually par for the course. If you search on the history of any foreign company who has listed Taiwan as a separate entity/country, you will see a huge amount of backlash as soon as it was 'discovered' by mainland china. As most companies are spineless and kowtow to the almightly $/RMB, they will almost immediately apologize and make amends in order to avoid offending China. No one cares about offending Taiwan since its population is minuscule in comparison. Recently China has successfully pressured some of the few remaining countries that recognize Taiwan rather than China to switch their allegiance in advance of the upcoming Taiwanese presidential elections. As an American, as much as I would like to claim the moral high ground, I find it a bit hypocritical for the US to criticize those countries even though the US also recognizes China over Taiwan. Similar case as the Uyghur concentration camps, as much as I would like to claim moral outrage, the US situation with the family separation policies is only a little better. Perhaps the more interesting thing about the NBA, is that China doesn't really have an alternative. I do believe people who love basketball, love basketball. It's not easy to switch your allegiance to a completely different sport. I also don't think the CBA is a viable alternative. It'll be interesting to see the continuing reactions on this from the Chinese side, and whether or not the average citizen realizes that they may have bitten off more than they can chew and that sacrificing access to the NBA may not have been worth it for the sake of national pride. This contrasts with other previous cases since it's much easier to switch from <insert namebrand fashion designer> to <alternate fashion designer>. To be honest, I was quite surprised to see Adam Silver's subsequent clarification, and I have to give the man some props for backing one of the key American beliefs of having the right to your own opinion. Hopefully at some point the average chinese citizen realizes that with great power comes great responsibility, and the whole world is not obligated to see things the same way, and bend over backwards to accommodate them. Make no mistake, China's economic power is first or second by most measures, but ideally this power should be used responsibly, and not to address every slight or perceived slight that happened in the last 200+ years.
China is not capitalist. They are not a full-on master-planned government owns all communist economy. But the state has the ultimate authority over all. And many businesses are owned by the state or have been taken over by the state. It is essentially communism except they let private citizens run some stuff as long as they do it a certain way.
Yes, the NBA and specifically the Rockets spent years trying to break into China. They weren't partnering with a separate business in China. They (like a lot of other businesses here in the USA and around the world) went in with eyes wide open that they were trying to do business with essentially the Chinese government. After the league and the Rockets finally achieve success in obtaining a relationship with China, one employee unilaterally retweets something that with any thought he would have known would offend the NBA's business partner. It wasn't genius. It wasn't noble. It was a mistake. Sacrificing yourself for your beliefs is noble. Dragging down a whole lot of people without consulting them just isn't. I am glad that the NBA is backing him because we can't bow down to China's demand. And China's reaction is ridiculous. But, Morey should not have put the league and all of the people affiliated with the league in this position.
Of course, that's why you need someone knows when to open his mouth, that's exactly how politics should work.
That's the thing here too, there is no alternative to the NBA. Maybe people will be fine with the CBA, maybe the Euroleague will try to step in and fill that void and mabe that's possible. Will be interesting to see what happens as the season goes on. Also, Tencent et all have already paid for the rights, billions paid, to the NBA to air these games so that is money lost for them. People are saying that the NBA stands to lose money from this but China does as well, lots of people in China have tied their wagons to the NBA, this is a marriage they want too.
If he did, I would be bitterly disappointed. He has several years left on the extension of his contract. I hope he is here for every one of those years, and then signs another extension.
It is possible. He did not retweet one thing, in one moment, thinking he was going to cost lots of other people lots of income (including some NBA staff that focus exclusively on China their livelihoods, possibly, as well as costing his two star players, his owner, and so on). Seriously, I just completely doubt it was his plan to create an international incident. It was careless, I can only assume, and he must feel remorseful as this unfolds. Before any flame, of course it was his right to share that tweet and have those views. Of course. I just think he's the kind of guy who would rather see it cost him money instead of lots of other people money.
Right. This could get so significant that it lowers the salary cap which means players will actually lose money because of this. The idea that Morey feels good about that is nuts. He probably feels terrible about this. One thing to cost billionaire Tilman money, another when players are going to start losing money. This could have significant rolling impacts. Are players and agents going to resent him going forward?
