The NBA and China

First off let me say that I really feel for Darryl Morey. He made what he thought was a simple Tweet of support for friends who live in Hong Kong. Then he quickly found himself in the center of a maelstrom of controversy. I completely understand why he deleted his Tweet of support for Hong Kong and apologized. Not sure how I would have reacted if a seven word Tweet of mine suddenly put billions of dollars of revenue in question for my employers.

Second - two quotes keep popping up in my head when I read about the situation:

"You have to lower your ideals of freedom if you want to suck on the warm teat of China." - South Park

"What profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul." - Mark 8:36

The Ringer has a pretty good take on the situation.

Excellent point from Kyle Bass and Yahoo! Finance - how could Darryl Morey's Tweet offend anyone in China since Twitter is banned in China. It's a joke. And Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports also has a good handle on the situation. I feel it should be pointed out that Morey has just 200,000 Twitter followers. His original Tweet was probably ignored by most. But now millions are aware of his Tweet because of the Chinese bullying.

Slate argues that the NBA should leave China. They have a point. Now that the Chinese are aware of how eager the NBA is to be their money-grubbing lapdogs - this is just the start of the demands that will be foisted on the NBA if they want to continue to suck on the warm teat of China.

But what if the NBA called China's bluff? What if they said "If you don't broadcast the Rockets games - you don't get any NBA games"? The NBA is very popular in China and taking away the NBA games is an easy way for unrest to foment. Messing with the working man's sports is always a tricky proposition.

When the histories are written - China's bullying reaction to Morey's innocent Tweet and the NBA kowtowing to the Chinese may be looked at as an important turning point in the decoupling of the United States from Communist China. Or it may be looked at as a turning point where the average Chinese working man turned against their Communist Overlords. 

Or it could be viewed as when America chose sucking on the warm teat of China over freedom.