China Cancels Events in War of Words With NBA

(AP) — In response to the NBA’s defending Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey's freedom of speech, China canceled events scheduled with the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets.

China canceled all of the usual media sessions surrounding the Lakers-Nets preseason game in Shanghai on Thursday — including a scheduled news conference from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and postgame news conferences with the teams.

It's the latest salvo in the rift between the league and China stemming from a since-deleted tweet posted last week by Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets.

"There will be no media availabilities for tonight's game between the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers," the NBA said in a statement Thursday, released a few hours before the game.

The game was to proceed as scheduled.

"I understand that there are consequences from that exercise of, in essence, his freedom of speech," Silver said at a news conference in Tokyo this week. "We will have to live with those consequences."

This move was one of those consequences.

Morey's tweet expressed support for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, and sparked fallout that has overshadowed the NBA's annual trip to China — which typically takes on a celebratory tone.

Not this year. Most events before the game, such as NBA Cares events to benefit educational causes and the Special Olympics, were called off, as was a "fan night" where Lakers and Nets players were to interact with some Chinese ticketholders. Signs in Shanghai to promote the game — huge photos of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and other players — were ripped down, and mentions of the game were scrubbed from the arena website.

All that comes as many Chinese corporations suspended their business ties to the NBA. China state broadcaster CCTV said it would not show the Lakers-Nets games on Thursday or in Shenzhen on Saturday, and NBA broadcast partner Tencent said it was changing its coverage plans for the league.

Silver said this week that Rockets great Yao Ming, a Basketball Hall of Famer and the president of the Chinese Basketball Association — which also suspended its ties with Houston as part of the Morey tweet fallout — is angry as well.

"I'm not sure he quite accepts sort of how we are operating our business right now, and again, I accept that we have a difference of opinion," Silver said. "I also think that as part of our core values, tolerance is one of those as well. I think tolerance for differing societies' approaches, tolerance for differing points of view and the ability to listen. Certainly I don't come here, either as the commissioner of the NBA or as an American, to tell others how they should run their governments."

In the United States too there was governmental reaction before the game.

On Wednesday in Washington, a bipartisan group of lawmakers — including the rare alignment of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York — sent a letter to Silver saying the NBA should show the "courage and integrity" to stand up to the Chinese government.

They asked the NBA to, among other things, suspend activities in China until what they called the selective treatment against the Rockets ends.

"You have more power to take a stand than most of the Chinese government's targets and should have the courage and integrity to use it," the lawmakers told Silver.

The Rockets were extremely popular in China, largely because of Yao. But the team's merchandise has been taken off e-commerce sites and out of stores selling NBA apparel in the country, murals featuring the team's stars and logo were painted over and the Chinese consulate office in Houston expressed major displeasure with Morey and the Rockets.

Morey has been silent on the matter since a tweet Sunday where he attempted to make amends with the Chinese.

"I have always appreciated the significant support our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided and I would hope that those who are upset will know that offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention," he wrote Sunday. "My tweets are my own and in no way represent the Rockets or the NBA."

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